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Staff of a Hastings shop are being asked to take on greater "community responsibility" after selling several cans of paint to a group of children who then went on a weekend of sniffing binges.
Senior Sergeant Mike O'Leary said police lacked legal authority to prosecute. But he said the retailer and
staff involved were being asked to be alert to the reasons why children could be buying paint, to question them and, if not satisfied, to refuse to make the sale.
On Friday, police discovered a group of 10 children, aged from 11 to 15, sniffing paint in Hastings. On Sunday they found a group of seven, mainly comprising children from the same group.
Police established where the cans of paint they were using had been bought, and an officer spoke with a representative of the firm yesterday.
"We can't prosecute," he said, "but shops could show a bit more community responsibility, and ask: 'Why would children be buying several cans of paint?"'
Mr O'Leary said police were not identifying the shop which had made the sale, but would consider doing so if there were similar incidents.
He said that paint sniffing had not been a particularly significant issue in Hawke's Bay recently, and it was understandable if shopkeepers and staff were not aware of the possibilities as much as they might have been in the past.
"But the possibility is that one day a child could die, so there is that need for extra care and concern."
The same applied to a wide range of aerosols and solvents, and police in the past had had evidence of children experimenting with fly sprays, cigarette lighters and other products.
"They are all dangerous," he said, "and the warnings on most containers are self-explanatory."
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
