Pubdate: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL) Copyright: 1999 News-Journal Contact: PO Box 2831, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2831 Fax: +1-904-258-8465 Feedback: http://www.n-jcenter.com/letters.shtml Website: http://www.n-jcenter.com/ Forum: http://www.n-jcenter.com/forum/edit/edit_board.shtml Bookmark: link to MAP's Florida news clippings at: http://www.mapinc.org/states/fl STATE ISN'T BLOCKING UNDERAGE ALCOHOL SALES What will it take to stop store clerks from selling beer to minors? It's clear current rules don't work. Sting operations since September have yielded charges of illegal sales at half of the businesses tested in Volusia County. Many store clerks also sold tobacco to underage operatives. Without including numbers from a similar sting Friday night, visits to 55 stores over the past three months netted 28 violations. The charges included clerks at chain and independent convenience stores. The incidence is shameful and might be worse than the numbers indicate. When the sting operations started in September, a much higher percentage of the businesses tested were willing to sell to underage drinkers. Police believe word of the stings got around, and the number of arrests went down. The Legislature has wrestled with underage drinking time and again. But almost without fail corporate business interests have prevailed, in recent years even managing to wrest more protection and loosen some penalties. The result is a law that coddles big corporations while getting tough with mom-and-pop stores. Convenience-store clerks - who face second-degree misdeameanor charges for a first offense - are essentially rendered disposable while the companies that pay them minimum wage get off scott-free. Addressing this inequity would go a long way toward choking off illegal sales of beer, wine, chewing tobacco and cigarettes to minors. Florida's law is rife with loopholes. The person or corporation that holds the license to sell alcohol doesn't face any penalty on first and second offenses unless they're on the premises or had reason to believe illegal sales are taking place. That makes the law much harsher for sole proprieters, who are apt to be on the property at any time of day or night. Corporate officers of large chains are unlikely to be behind the counter at 8 p.m. on a Saturday. For the chain stores, the license doesn't come under attack until employees of a particular store are caught selling alcohol three times in a 12-week period. Then an individual store - not the chain - is hit with a seven-day suspension. Law enforcement officials say it's very hard to catch an individual outlet of a chain convenience store in that third violation, so many chain stores never face discipline for selling to minors. Disciplinary records prove that chain stores have no trouble insulating themselves from threats to their profitable licenses. Despite continuing efforts by law enforcement and the local division of the Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco, it's been more than four years since an outlet of a major convenience-store chain has faced any type of alcohol-sales license suspension. Volusia County Sheriff Bob Vogel, whose office conducted the sting along with state officials, says he's discouraged by the ease in which businesses escape any threat to their bottom line. He's right to keep trying, but the real burden should be on the Legislature. Lawmakers must get the attention of the major retailers in the state, and force them to understand that selling alcohol and tobacco to minors will cost them, heavily. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake