Businesses in Forest Park seem to be complying with laws that ban the sale of tobacco products to those under 21, with the number of violations issued by the police going down.
For many years, Forest Park police, with the help of a grant, have used underage youth agents to attempt to buy tobacco at business across the village. If those businesses sell the tobacco product to the agent, they will be issued a citation for Sale of Tobacco Products to Minors.
“We are trying to protect our children, our high school age and middle school children who sometimes make poor choices at a young age and want to pick up a habit that could be detrimental to their health and life,” said Forest Park Police Chief Ken Gross.
The number of citations is going down, indicating to Gross that compliance by businesses is up.
“It seems that the program is effective with the number of citations on the downswing,” said Gross.
According to the chief, in 2021 police wrote five citations; in 2022, 12; in 2023, five; and so far this year just one.
Gross said the program isn’t just about the citations.
“It gives us an opportunity to educate the retailer and employee about the rules. It also lets them know that we do and will randomly check on their businesses to make sure that the rules are followed,” he said.
Tobacco compliance checks have been a successful tactic used by law enforcement for years as have compliance checks with underaged alcohol sales.
For example, in Oak Park and River Forest, the Alcohol Policy Resource Center started funding alcohol compliance checks in those communities. Police found that the neighborhoods had seen a 20% decrease in the Retail Access Rate of Alcohol by minors since 2012 due to the checks. In addition, since 2018, law enforcement has checked 118 retailers with a 98% pass rate.
Recently, Cook County has added other steps to deter underage tobacco use.
This year the Cook County Board of Commissioners amended the Cook County Youth Tobacco Control Ordinance, restricting the sale of all flavored liquid nicotine products. This affects underage tobacco use, with 85% of e-cigarette users ages 12-17 using flavored e-cigarettes.
According to the Cook County Department of Public Health, this year e-cigarette use has increased by 78% among high school students and 48% among middle school students.
Also, this year, the Cook County Department of Public Health launched the campaign “Unfriend Tobacco: Your Lungs, Your Rules.”
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness among youth and young adults about the harmful effects of using flavored vape and other tobacco products. This campaign will use ads on streaking audio and social media apps to discuss the harmful effects of tobacco.