August 20, 1999

Cigarette sales to underage teens in the county have dropped and proof was provided by students of Riverbank High.

Four seniors enrolled in the school's Project Riverbank program went undercover in a follow-up of a 1995 survey to see how many stores would sell tobacco products to teens.

"It turned out really good," said Ian Baker, 16, who volunteered to help. "They said in 1995 about 54 percent of the stores sold to kids but only 12 percent this year."

Of the 155 stores visited in the county, only 19 were actually willing to sell to the underage researchers and Baker almost caught number 20.

"The one store which almost sold to me was a supermarket chain," he said. "The lady was about to ring it up when the manager came by and gave her a look and then she asked me for my I.D."

Six of the 19 incidents where sales to minors were made were done after clerks asked for identification and none was produced.

The survey, which covered all areas of the county and every type of store known to handle such products, was conduced by the Stanislaus County Health Service as part of its Tobacco Awareness Program.

Teens ages 14 through 17 canvassed randomly selected establishments and attempted to purchase cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco similar to an operation conducted four years ago. The purpose was to establish a baseline rate of sales to county youth, said project manager Heather Gruenig Duvall.

"It was just a survey and not a sting operation," she said. "None of the students actually purchased any tobacco products."

The earlier survey was totally random, she added, and no breakdown was made of where the purchases occurred unlike this year.

"An evaluator from Stanislaus State told us how it should be conducted and our staff went through and selected the locations," Duvall said. "We separated them out and areas with less than nine stores carrying tobacco products we hit them all. We did random samples in the other communities so we could hit every town."

Of the 10 stores sampled in Riverbank, two (20 percent) sold to the minors compared to Oakdale where of 17 stores checked, only one was willing to break the law.

Worst was Salida where purchases were made in three out of four stores (75 percent). Modesto had seven out of 54 (13 percent).

The trial had students going in and trying to purchase a tobacco product. If the clerk was willing, the teens were to act like they didn't have enough money to pay for it and leave, then mark it on their evaluation form.

It was this tactic which may have cost Riverbank High student Brandon Kollmar a successful buy.

"One guy actually started to give them (cigarettes) to me, then took them back," he said. "If I'd have had the money ready, he probably would have sold them."

They were also chaperoned by adults who were to enter the store independently and observe.

"It was pretty interesting and helped us to see how much people now care about minors smoking," said Jimmy Garcia, 17, who also took part. "I thought we'd catch more people. Some people acted like they would sell but when the chaperone came in they stopped. One man asked if she (chaperone) could buy them for us."

Barbara Fowler, 17, was the fourth participant from Project Riverbank.

No citations came out of the operation but there will be follow-ups with all the merchants and more educational training in the late fall; said Duvall.

Used by permission of The Riverbank News.