age discrimination?
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San Antonio is one more than 280 cities and counties across the nation that have raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21. At least five states have similar laws.
The San Antonio City Council, in a 9-2 vote, passed the ordinance in January. It went into effect Oct. 1, but the city gave retailers a three-month grace period to comply. The city will begin enforcing the law next week, when inspectors and underage decoys will conduct begin random visits to stores to ensure they are complying.
Stores that violate the ordinance face fines of up to $500, while young adults caught purchasing, using or possessing tobacco face no penalties.
That disparate treatment is the basis of the challenge brought by convenience store owners, who argue the ordinance unfairly singles them out. The lawsuit, brought by the trade groups Association of Convenience Store Retailers, South Texas Merchants Association Cooperative and Texas Food and Fuel Association, asks the court to declare the ordinance “unconstitutional and void” because their “members were deprived equal protection” under federal and state laws.
“Without any enforcement provision for the (purchase, use and possession) of tobacco products by persons aged 18 to 20, (the ordinance) is clearly biased against one class for the benefit of another,” the lawsuit said.
Among those who oppose the ordinance is Anwar Tahir, owner of an independent West Side convenience store and president of the Association of Convenience Store Retailers in San Antonio. Tahir projects his store would lose as much as 4 percent of its profit because of the law.
“This is an unequal thing. They are penalizing the retailer only,” Tahir said. “It’s unfair. You cannot penalize one party and on the consumer side there is no law enforcement. We are saving their life, but we are not enforcing the law on them.”
