Proposal to Tighten Cigarette Sales Struck Down
The Putnam County Legislature struck down a possible law that would stop the sale of cigarette products in stores where prescription drugs are sold within the county borders during its Oct. 2 meeting.
Brought to the full legislature from the Health, Social, Educational, and Environmental Committee, the proposed amendment wasn’t approved by a 7-2 margin, with legislators expressing their concern it overstepped what government should control.
The two legislators that voted in favor of the measure were District 1 Legislator Barbara Scuccimarra and District 2 Legislator Sam Oliverio, who are both on the Health Committee.
When Oliverio voted during the roll call, he said he was “very disappointed” that other legislators didn’t support the proposal. He said the bill was paramount for the safety of the county’s citizens and that it would not hurt businesses.
“It killed my father, it killed my uncle, killed many of our relatives,” Oliverio said of the tobacco products. “You can buy your cigarettes, but we’re going to make it a little more difficult.”
Scuccimarra said afterward she expected the vote not to pass, but thought it was still an issue worth bringing up. She referenced that other major places like Boston and other Massachusetts towns and also in places in California have instituted a similar law.
She added that smoking restrictions in general have become tighter over the years with restaurants going from certain smoking sections to no smoking at all and felt selling cigarettes in businesses such as pharmacies is hypocritical.
“When you’re buying the patch, buying the nicorrate gum and you look across the counter and there’s the cigarettes behind there,” Scuccimarra said. “And I think pharmacies are a place where people go to get healthy.”
But most legislators strongly disagreed, expressing that the law would have too much government control on commerce.
District 6 Legislature Roger Gross said during the meeting the law punishes businesses that generally do a good job of keeping tobacco products out of the hands of underage minors.
“I really feel this resolution is misdirected. It doesn’t do anything to prevent the sale of tobacco,” Gross said. “It really affects the folks that do the best job of stopping underage purchases.”
Legislator 5 Carl Albano said he originally supported the bill but he was troubled by the government control it entailed. He also said he would only support it if it had a negative effect on children, which he believes it doesn’t.
Legislature Chairman and District 3 Legislator Richard Othmer said he didn’t support the bill because he thinks government is interfering too much with the private lives of citizens.
“I was actually against the seatbelt law,” Othmer said of the New York law that tickets drivers that don’t use a seatbelt.
He also said that if the law passed, it could open the county to lawsuits from interest groups the way New York City faced legal trouble after it attempted to pass a restriction on the amount of soda sold in a container.
Still, he wanted to make clear that minors should not smoke or use tobacco products because of the health ramifications.
“If I caught my kids—they’re grown now—I would have beat the crap out of them,” Othmer said bluntly. “They never smoked because they know I’d never allow it in the house.
