Flavored Tobacco Ban in Port Orange

The bright purple package behind the convenience store counter looked as if it held some kind of sugary treat.

But the familiar Surgeon General warning at the bottom of the wrapper indicated the product inside could cause much more than cavities.

The five "honey berry" cigars were among a growing array of flavored Kiss cigarettes products that critics say are luring underage teens into smoking.


"Most adults are not interested in the candy (flavors). But students are," said Rakinya Hinson, tobacco program specialist for the Volusia County Health Department. "And they're getting them from somewhere."

Port Orange is expected to pass a resolution Tuesday night requesting convenience store owners to stop selling flavored tobacco products altogether, a move that several managers of those businesses declined to discuss.

If passed, Port Orange will be the first city to make such a request of stores in Volusia or Flagler counties. In Florida, it's illegal to sell any tobacco product to someone younger than 18.

"They are meant to be starter products with the sweet flavoring and colorful packages," Hinson said of the candy-flavored cigars, cigarillos and chew. "Students are attracted to the ads ... The (marketing) process is to dumb down the product and young people will think it's less harmful. And once they try it, they'll continue."

In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration banned the candy-like flavorings from being added to cigarettes, but didn't do the same with other tobacco products.

"I have no idea why," Hinson said. "Definitely among students, flavored tobacco products are more of an issue. Adults rarely use them."

Kevin Morrin, 54, of Port Orange, prefers Marlboro cigarettes. He said he started smoking at age 34, after leaving the Navy.

"No way. I don't smoke it," he said of flavored cigars or smokeless tobacco products, after stepping out of a convenience store with a fresh carton of Marlboros. "And I have no intention to try it."

But Amanda Wiles, 19, of Port Orange, prefers single peach cigarillos.

"It's for my boyfriend. But I like the peach a lot," she said. "I don't smoke cigarettes at all."

And she is not alone when it comes to the young and tobacco products, even decades after TV ads for them were banned.

A recent Volusia County survey indicated 12 percent of middle-school students and 26 percent of those in high school used some form of tobacco one or more times in a month. In addition, they said a 2005 national survey showed youngsters ages 12 to 17 were twice as likely as adults to remember advertisements for candy-flavored tobacco products.

"Ninety percent of smokers start before age 18," Hinson said. "The influence comes from somewhere. Peer pressure has something to do with it. But also there's parents and guardians."

In an effort to dissuade youngsters, the Port Orange City Council earlier this month was unanimous in support of adopting a resolution requesting store owners to voluntarily ban flavored tobacco products.

"The intent behind these products is absolutely outrageous. That these companies would do that to the youth of this country in the name of profit," Councilman Bob Pohlmann said. "And I know many people who think our country is over-regulated. But this is certainly the kind of product that needs to be regulated very closely. I support any ordinance to eliminate these products to our youth."

The council asked the city attorney to research what legally could be mandated, but the sentiment of the board was overwhelming to do something.

Dr. Bonnie Sorensen, director of the Volusia County Health Department, said Port Orange also was on the front lines of an anti-tobacco campaign in 2003, when it became the first local city to designate specific areas in stores where tobacco products could be placed -- behind counters.

"We hope other cities will follow suit," she said of the new resolution. "It's already illegal, but these products end up in the hands of younger people, probably through older friends. So we urge local retailers to cease the sale altogether."