Ore. governor wants ban on cigarette machines
Monday, December 29, 2008 10:51 AM PST
SALEM (AP) — Gov. Ted Kulongoski is calling on the 2009 Legislature to ban vending machines that sell cigarettes, erasing one of the easiest ways underage smokers can buy the product.
‘‘It’s just bringing these vending machines in line with the laws that everyone else who sells tobacco products have to play by,’’ said Jillian Schoene, a spokeswoman for the governor.
A state Department of Human Service survey found that most eighth-graders get their cigarettes from friends. Only 7 percent reported getting cigarettes from vending machines, which are generally located in motels and taverns.
Lou Leberti, a veteran of the vending machine business, predicted that a ban would do little to keep cigarettes from those younger than 18.
‘‘It’s just a political statement,’’ the Coos Bay businessman said.
Leberti was still in high school in 1964 when he started working for the company he now owns, Vend West Services. Back then, the company had 350 cigarette vending machines. Today, Vend West mostly focuses on snacks and candy. It maintains three cigarettes machines in taverns and three at The Mill Casino in North Bend. Not one of them is accessible to minors. Leberti said the three tavern-housed machines could be removed on Jan. 1, when Oregon joins other states in banning smoking in bars.
Anti-smoking groups, not surprisingly, support Kulongoski’s proposal.
