Redwood City — The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors today voted unanimously to increase penalties on businesses that sell cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors.

Proposed by County Health, the increased penalties are intended to discourage retailers from taking the risk of selling tobacco products to minors and help prevent youth from getting hooked on nicotine. In California, 67 percent of current and former smokers report that they started smoking by the age of 18.

“When we discuss these issues, what we are really talking about is saving lives,” said Warren Slocum, who represents District 4 on the Board of Supervisors. “We need to put teeth into enforcement for two big reasons: one is that we need to make the penalty large enough to negate the profit in selling to minors. And two, we need to do everything we can to keep cigarettes and other tobacco products out of the hands of kids. Most adult smokers began when they were not old enough to legally by tobacco products.”

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