HBPD Awarded $75K Grant To Reduce Teen Tobacco Use

HERMOSA BEACH, CA – The Hermosa Beach Police Department was awarded a $75,404 grant to help reduce teen tobacco use by financing increased education of the hazards of smoking and enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to young people under the age of 21, the California Department of Justice recently announced.

Hermosa Beach is one of 65 local government agencies to receive funding from the California Department of Justice’s Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Proposition 56 Tobacco Grant Program, the Hermosa Beach press release said.

The grant funding will be used to educate teens, the community and retailers about the dangers of smoking and the laws on tobacco sales, Hermosa Beach Police Lt. Dorothy Scheid said. Scheid said the funding would also help pay for increased enforcement of the laws governing tobacco sales.

New tobacco marketing techniques – including battery-powered e-cigarettes used for "vaping," which comes in flavors like bubble gum – may have made smoking more appealing to teens, she said. These devices don’t emit the odors that cigarettes do, so Lt. Scheid said they may go undetected by parents.

“With this funding, our officers will be able to go into the middle school and the community to educate young people and their parents about these developments in tobacco marketing that can make smoking more attractive to younger people,” she said. “We want to educate the community about the increasing tobacco usage among underage minors and get out in front of this issue.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 90 percent of cigarette smokers first tried smoking by age 18, the press release said. In 2014, the last year for which the agency has figures, 73 percent of high school students and 56 percent of middle school students who used tobacco products in the past 30 days said they had used a flavored tobacco product.

Increased education and enforcement will help support the City’s commitment to a healthier community and environment, as well as its ordinances which prohibit smoking in public places, Lt. Scheid said. Hermosa Beach police have been working closely with the Beach Cities Health District, the press release said.

"In addition to the education and enforcement the grant will fund, the City Council recently amended the municipal code to require local tobacco retailers purchase an annual business license to continue the specific sale of tobacco products," the press release said. "The intent of the amendment is to limit the sale of electronic smoking devices and flavored tobacco products to youth in the community. It goes into effect on June 1, 2019."

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