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The Daily PollSHOPS THAT SELL cigarettes to minors are to be automatically banned from selling them for up to a month, under new legislation.
The Business Post reports that this power is already available to judges who are dealing with breaches of tobacco control legislation. However, these new proposals would make it mandatory for them to impose suspension.
It also reported that retailers that are convicted of minor breaches of the tobacco legislation, such as failure to display warning signs, will have their tobacco retail licence withdrawn for between two and seven days.
So, today we want to know… Should shops that sell cigarettes to minors be banned from selling cigarettes for a few days?
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….and prosecuted?
@Paul Shepherd: the article says they would have to be convicted, so I’d imagine a prosecution would be required to get to that stage.
@Paul Shepherd: They could only punish them once they’ve been prosecuted, so yes obviously.
Permanent ban on selling tobacco products if caught selling to minors.
What about alcohol being sold to underage kids ? It’s a far more dangerous and toxic drug and can easily kill in minutes through overdose ? Cigarettes are bad but they’re not an immediate concern. And if we’re so keen to keep dangerous drugs away from kids, why do we preserve and protect the black market that has no problem selling untested and unregulated products to anyone of any age ? It makes zero sense and as toxic as they are, Cigarettes should be the least of our concerns when it comes to drugs and children.
@Declan Doherty: so is cigarettes
@Declan Doherty: The same laws apply where alcohol is concerned. In fact I’ve never heard of a shop being banned from selling tobacco after being caught selling to minors, but know of at least 3 pubs locally that have been ordered to close for a number of weeks for serving underage people.
No, but they should have to pay huge fines. If they’re banned where will elderly locals who smoke go to buy their cigarettes?
@Pam: To another store, where they will buy other things. All the more reason to not sell to minors.
@Pam: I actually think incurring the wrath of the elderly locals would be at least as much of a deterrent as the financial impact of not being able to sell them. Win win.
@Pam: I agree, I don’t see why local adults should be inconvenienced simply because aome staff member failed to ask someone completely different for ID.
Heard one in the local shop the other day. Young lad asked for ID for scratch card. Well his mother came in roaring dogs abuse at the cashier for requesting ID when his 18. Why isn’t everyone asked for ID. Pointing at the long line of customers.
Queues were building up. Everyone was looking because the customer was so loud and obnoxious. Poor cashier went bright red but didn’t back down refused to sell the scratch card and quoted the regulations in an extremely loud voice.
Requiring a valid photo ID for anyone who is under 21. A physical driver’s license, passport or Garda age card, not the photo of one on a phone that could be photoshopped.
On a side note most supermarkets ask for ID if someone looks under 25.
@Serge the llama: I bought a bottle of something recently and they did not even blink an eye or ask for proof of age. A sign that I am well past that age cohort to be asked for ID LOL
@Serge the llama: I saw a boy in school uniform ask for cigarettes. He was asked for ID, he didn’t have it. He left and his mother came in roaring about being in a hurry and that it was disgraceful that the shop had asked him for ID and made her get out of her car!
5 weeks off the cigarettes today, way too expensive a habit now, mind you I don’t know where all the money I saved went.
@DERRY1973: food! Or it least in my case I replaced one bad habit with another.
@DERRY1973: Hope y stay off them. I’m 4 years now but the test is if you like the pub the drink & the cig go hand in hand in the smoking area.
@DERRY1973: congratulations and well done
@DERRY1973: All the best, I used to take out the calculator app on the phone every so often and work out the money saved as a bit of a motivator.
It also motivates when you look back and figure you’ve smoked the price of a new car over the years, no point starting on a second car.
Or in other words persecute (yes – persecute) shopkeepers for making the odd mistake instead of the parents of these brats who are roaming the streets causing trouble. How quickly people forget they were singing the praises of retailers during the lockdown. We’re a great country for blaming the wrong person
@Mark Howard: it is a big jump from a teen kid taking up/trying cigarette smoking to them being br*ts who are roaming the streets to cause trouble! Have all the people you know who smoke, or are ex smokers, been that type of person?? For the record, I don’t think shops should have a their licence suspended unless a repeat offender
The way this works is they find some lad who is 6’6″ with a beard who looks 30 but is actually a teenager. They get him to ask for cigarettes in a string of shops at a busy time and when the teenager working behind the counter fails to ask for an ID the shop is nabbed.
It is a form of entrapment. The only safe approach for shopkeepers is to get the ID from everyone, including the 60 year old granny who smokes the Superkings.
@NoPlanetB: the very fact that he looks 30 would be a mitigating factor. I work in the industry, they aren’t trying to trick people. They’ll usually send in an older looking person but in their school uniform or an older person that looks far younger. There is room for a genuine mistake being made within the regulations
So, Hayley is having us vote on her own offence/punishment combination?
Another journal poll fail
Remember Hayley’s ‘do you prefer rain or sun poll’
I reckon we should have a poll asking should Hayley be allowed to make polls
;-)
@TomTraubert: Even setting aside that this is a commercial site with an editorial team and a content marketing strategy, it’s a bit nasty having a go the individual author.
@Rob Hunt: dial it down a bit there Rob fgs.
I’ll carry on buying mine on the black market.
@Mike Dunne: Very foolish idea. Not only is it breaking the law, but those cigarettes could be counterfeit, have mould or other contamination to make them even more deadly.
@Tracktrack: Thats why its easier on smokers to just fly out of the country, bring back a carton or two and pocket the savings. Can you blame them doing that when the prices are so high the black market thrives?
I go to the shop on a regular basis for me da with a note asking for John player blue and a lighter as me da can’t walk very far
It’s a while since I heard such a ridiculous plan. Retailers should be fined €10,000 and possibly be also imprisoned for supplying a dangerous drug to children.
A suspension is unbelievable for such a serious offence.
@John Mulligan: Sounds like you could do with a smoke yourself . . .
They should be banned for good
Common sense says yes.
I think there should be an award as to which teenagers are most convicing. The award would be a packet of Benson’s finest
banned from selling them to minors for a few days or cigarettes for a few days ?
May be it’s about time the purchase of cigarettes should be as restrictive as possible…..e.g. available on prescription from a GP and only purchased from a pharmacy. In that way, the support and advise for giving them up is immediately available. But hey, it’s easy as a non smoker to say this.
Many shops in US won’t sell cigs to customers of any age unless they have some form of ID.
These are drugs, treat them as if thay had been dealing grass.
@ChronicAnxiety: Why ? Weed is harmless when compared to cigarettes and alcohol. Alcohol can kill a child in minutes. Neither weed nor cigarettes are going to do them any harm in the short term. Why would you treat them all the same when the risk is radically different.
@ChronicAnxiety: Dealing grass is a monopoly of the the crime lords and so is beyond the reach of this government.
Great idea, practical and it would work and so cannot be tried.
yes, no and don’t know do not amount to a sufficient number of possible responses. This online opinion poll has no scientific validity.
No, what harm are they doing.
A few days???
Permanent ban, followed by prosecution and stiff penalties.
have your say