Youthful smokers may need ID

By BRIDGET CARTER and MARTIN JOHNSTON

Young people could be forced to produce ID when buying cigarettes - but some doubt that it would help to reduce teenage smoking.

A bill before Parliament proposes that people who look to be under 18 be required to show proof of age to buy cigarettes.

The same bill would tighten the rules on smoking in restaurants and bars.

Health select committee chairwoman Judy Keall says retailers selling cigarettes are not legally required to ask for identification, even though they can be prosecuted for selling to minors.

But forcing young people to show ID would give retailers a "backup with the law," the Labour MP says.





Retail Merchants Association spokesman Barry Hellberg says retailers would support the use of ID cards for cigarette sales.

They had worked in supermarkets for buying alcohol, as no chain store has been prosecuted for selling alcohol to minors, he said.

Trish Fraser, director of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said the ID card move was, "a good idea ... but it's not a big step either."

"I think most retailers are already asking young people to show ID."

Ash encouraged retailers to do this and many displayed signs saying ID was required as proof of age to buy tobacco, she said.

She doubted whether the move would make much difference to teenage smokers because retailers were already being prosecuted if they did not comply with the ban on selling tobacco to under-18s.

Young people spoken to by the Herald yesterday said that, regardless of the law, when it came to selling cigarettes to those under age, a lenient dairy owner was not hard to find.

Rikki Carson says she could buy cigarettes when she was 12. "There are so many dodgy shopkeepers out there. You knew the shopkeepers who were legitimate."

Most asked friends to buy cigarettes for them if they were not old enough.

Rikki, now 20, says if ID had been required when she picked up the habit, it would not have stopped her smoking. She would have asked someone older to buy cigarettes for her.



Ken Chen started smoking a year ago and says he gets asked for identification because he looks much younger than his actual age, 19.

Another 19-year-old, Lucy Mills, says she was underage when she began smoking and buying cigarettes was easy.

In the past five years, 139 retailers have been convicted of selling cigarettes to minors.

Mrs Keall says the bill will be debated in the house after the Easter break.

Submissions were to be heard from April 23, but the health committee has extended the closing date to July 2.