Hopefully, county officials fulfill a promise to revive tobacco enforcement.

I grew up in the days of the D.A.R.E. program, a curriculum that has fortunately been relegated to the dustbin. But even as educational frameworks and laws have evolved to be more relevant, so too have tobacco product manufacturers who are seeking to hook young consumers who will become addicted to tobacco products. Today’s youth experimenting with vape pens are tomorrow’s market.

There is a shared responsibility when it comes to adapting to help kick deadly habits among a new generation of young people.

One entity that shares responsibility are vendors who sell tobacco products. It was a headline-grabber a month ago when the Monterey County District Attorney announced that Gamal Kalini, owner of Rubystar Gems & Gifts in Monterey, agreed to pay $25,000 in civil penalties for unlawfully selling tobacco products to minors. (The legal age to purchase such products in California is 21.) The charges centered on unfair business practices – essentially that by playing by different rules, Rubystar was getting away with anticompetitive behavior.

This case came after a series of complaints about the store. In 2021, then again in summer 2023 and fall of 2023, parents called Monterey Police to report their children were using tobacco products purchased from Rubystar. Two employees faced misdemeanor charges – the more recent one completed a four-hour diversion course on Aug. 8 of this year, according to court records – but still the sales to minors continued.

“We appreciate the calls,” says MPD Lt. Jake Pinkas. “As a police department I can’t revoke somebody’s tobacco license, but we can establish a pattern.” In this case, the pattern led to the high-dollar civil penalty.

There is another pattern, or maybe an absence of a pattern, that is concerning here though. That’s consistent enforcement of sales around tobacco rules.

Eight cities and the unincorporated county have adopted a Tobacco Retail License Ordinance, which requires vendors to pay a $407 annual fee for the privilege of selling tobacco products. (There are 309 active permits on file, including Rubystar’s.) The licensing fee historically has helped fund enforcement efforts, including youth decoy operations; children would walk into stores and see if they could buy cigarettes or vape pens. At some point, that practice came to an end. The previous sheriff, Steve Bernal, said in 2021 that he had rejected a $700,000 grant to support enforcement because of staffing: “We just don’t have the bodies to take off the streets and commit to tobacco enforcement.”

The youth decoy operations are supposedly coming back this fall after a multi-year hiatus, although it’s not clear exactly when, although the Health Department and Sheriff’s Office pledge to collaborate on a timeline TBD. “We are restarting the program,” Sheriff Tina Nieto said in a statement. “The health of our youth is important.”

Of course, even with an active enforcement program, there are not always enforcers watching – health inspectors rely on voluntary compliance. “For instance, in a restaurant, food handlers should wash their hands. In a gas station, there should be proper storage and handling of hazardous materials,” says Ric Encarnacion, director of Environmental Health.

But to some people who have been working for years on tobacco regulations, it feels like far from enough. “An ordinance without enforcement is useless – it’s just a waste of time,” says Dale Hillard, a retired high school science teacher who first joined the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Monterey County in 1998. “If you don’t get a speeding ticket once in a while, you don’t slow down.”

The Public Health Bureau of the County Health Department received $1.5 million in funds, to be dispersed over three years starting this year, thanks to a settlement with e-cigarette manufacturing giant JUUL Labs. They expect those funds to help revive regular enforcement.

Meanwhile, we have known for 50 years that the use of tobacco products contributes to disease and early death. Since the U.S. Surgeon General first reported on the dangers of smoking in 1964, 20 million Americans have died from smoking, including 2.5 million nonsmokers. The single best way to avoid repeating that in the next half-century is to stop young people from starting in the first place.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com