OLEAN, N.Y. — Starting Nov. 1, it will be illegal for stores in Cattaraugus County to sell tobacco products to people under age 21. But some are concerned young adults will subvert the new law by driving to nearby Native American territories.
County lawmakers voted 14 to 2 to increase the age to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products and e-cigarettes to 21, and the Board of Health unanimously recommended the local law with hopes it would help keep cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes out of the hands of teenagers.
Cattaraugus County is now the sixth county in the state to vote to increase the age to buy tobacco products. Chautauqua County enacted a similar law earlier this year.
At a public hearing Sept. 14, speakers said the measure would make it more difficult for people ages 18-20 to get cigarettes. Those who favored it said many young smokers will find it harder to get cigarettes because they don’t hang out with 21-year-olds, who will be able to legally buy smokes. And with the Board of Health levying fines of up to $600 now for stores who sell cigarettes to underage persons, stores are expected to be even more vigilant after Nov. 1.
But board members and county legislators made the observation that 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds would simply drive to Native American smoke shops on the Allegany and Cattaraugus territories and at Cuba Lake.
Dr. Kevin Watkins, county public health director, said county health officials realize that Native American smoke shops may draw out many 18 to 20-year-olds to buy cigarettes. But he said while the county’s local law on tobacco sales doesn’t apply on the Allegany and Cattaraugus territories, the Tribal Council could decide to enact a similar local law.
One Native American smoke shop owner, Ken Van Aernam of Route 219 in Seneca Junction, said people from the Olean area drive to Seneca Junction on Interstate 86 or down Route 417 to Vandalia to buy cheaper cigarettes now. He said there will be more of it when the new law goes into effect, adding he thinks the increased tobacco-buying age will probably lead to a new “prohibition.”
Van Aernam, who has operated Ken’s near the Interstate 86 interchange at Seneca Junction since 1990, expects more roll-your-own sales when the new law takes effect — people selling cigarettes on the street corner.
“It’s like moonshine during prohibition. You are not going to stop it,” he said. “It’s a tough law to enforce.”
“The county should have talked to the Seneca Nation,” Van Aernam said. “There should have been a deal made.”
And he said it’s not too late.
“It’s up to the Nation,” Van Aernam said, adding if the Seneca marshals came into his shop with a sign stating only 21-year-olds and up could buy tobacco products, that’s the way it would be. “It’s not about the money,” he said.
Watkins said that if invited, he would be interested in making a presentation to the Seneca Nation Tribal Council in a bid to make it more difficult for young people to get tobacco products. Speakers at the public hearing Sept. 14 cited studies that showed delaying the age at which youth start smoking had a significant impact on the number of people who started smoking after age 21.
As public health director, Watkins urged passage of the measure to improve the health of the nearly 80,000 county residents. Many of the diseases that drag down the county’s health scores are due to smoking, Watkins pointed out. The county’s smoking rate among adults is 28 percent as compared to the statewide average of 16 percent. About one in five county teens use tobacco products or e-cigarettes.
