CCP 02-10-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I- Other Ordinance Provisions and Approaches The following provisions are additional approaches to curb youth access to tobacco, tobacco products, and tobacco related devices. These provisions, however, tend to be less effective, I riskier, or simply not within the scope of regulation many cities wish to impose. Point-oC-Sale Advertising. Point-of-sale advertising restrictions seek to eliminate the use of I advertising methods such as clocks, colorful banners, grocery check-out lane dividers, etc. These forms of advertisements frequently use characters or symbols found to be highly recognizable I and attractive to minors. The City of Preston, Minnesota was the first city to adopt an ordinance which sought to limit or prohibit most forms of advertising at the point of sale except for limited black and white, text/numeric only "tombstone" signs. This ordinance was struck down by the I courts, with an emphasis being placed on the fact that the ordinance was not content neutral. While a less restrictive ordinance might be upheld, any ordinance of this type is highly subject to challenge. I Billboards. Related to point-of-sale advertising bans, some cities have sought to prohibit the use I of billboards for advertising tobacco, tobacco products, and tobacco related devices. The City of Baltimore, Maryland had a comprehensive ban on tobacco related billboards which the federal fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme court which Ie remanded the case to be reconsidered in light of a recent liquor advertising case. It is expected that under the new standard the court ordered applied, the ordinance will be struck down.. While no Minnesota city has yet adopted such a ban, several cities have adopted zoning regulations I restricting all billboards in the city limits. This comprehensive zoning approach has generally been upheld by the courts. I Free Distribution Prohibition. Most forms of free distribution of tobacco and tobacco products are prohibited by State law, and few cities have had a problem with this issue and thus have not I regulated it. One problem that still arises is the use of promotional activities where a person can trade in coupons, proofs-of-purchase, etc. for free samples. Tracking this form of violation, however, is difficult and it is not totally clear which laws would apply to this situation. I Use of Gifts. In addition to the free distribution of tobacco and tobacco products, some cities would like to regulate other free promotional activities. The idea of restricting free gifts is to I eliminate the enticement of young people through flashy give away items such as leather jackets with brand names, etc. Even small items like lighters and frisbees can be viewed as enticements to use a particular brand and at least indirectly encouraging minors to attempt to illegally obtain I tobacco or tobacco products. Again, however, regulating such promotional schemes raise constitutional challenges that would need to be overcome and thus such restrictions are highly I subject to costly litigation. Require Training Workshops. A few cities have imposed requirements that all licensees and f' their employees attend workshops on the problem of youth smoking. when to require identification, how to recognize false identifications, and general procedures for conducting sales I