Cheap cigarettes store

Marty Meehan believes its time Internet cigarette sellers require more than two simple clicks of a keyboard to verify a customer's age. Alarmed by the ease children can order tobacco products through online vendors, Meehan has drafted a bill in cooperation with Republican U.S. Rep. James Hansen of Utah that requires both retailers and delivery cheap cigarettes online services to verify the age of recipients before handing over the smokes. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat, said he would file the bill today when he arrives for the lame-duck congressional session.

"It's simple for kids to buy tobacco online," Meehan said. "Every day 4,000 kids try cigarettes and 2,000 become regular smokers, a third of whom will die from the addiction. It makes sense we regulate this market." Under the soon-to-be introduced bill, Internet sellers would be required to check the name and age of prospective buyers against a database containing their government I.D.'s, such as driver's license. It would also add an additional layer of protection by requiring a second identification check and signature cheap cigarettes online verification at the point-of-sale. In-person cigarette purchases already require young customers to prove they are at least 18 years old. The bill stands little chance of attracting serious attention from lawmakers as they return for a chaotic, lame-duck session that has cheap cigarettes online more pressing pieces of legislation, including the creation of a Homeland Security Department, terrorism insurance and 11 remaining spending bills. But Meehan said it's imperative to have the pieces of legislation in the pipeline for when the new Congress begins work in January.
He said the bipartisan effort he formed with Hansen to author the legislation will give the bill a better chance to pass next year, and it may be a sign of how Democrats conduct business in the Republican-controlled 108th Congress set to begin in January. "It's clear to me in the new Congress that we have to have bipartisan (alliances) to get items passed," Meehan said. In recent months, Meehan and Hansen have worked to build support for the proposal. The American Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, and the American Heart and Lung associations endorse the regulation of online tobacco sales. Meehan, in working with Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly, brought attention to the issue this summer by arranging a sting operation with a 17-year-old who was able to purchase and receive cigarettes from cheap cigarettes online retailers this summer. Meehan arranged a similar sting in 1999. Later this week, Meehan is expected to file another piece of legislation that calls for expanding government loans for daycare centers. The bill would be the same as one previously filed by Sen. John Kerry in the Senate.

With Massachusetts slapping $1.51 in taxes on a pack of cigarettes and New York and New Jersey imposing $1.50 each, smokers are heading to the Internet for cheaper smokes. About 10 online retailers have set up cyber-tobacco shops in Kentucky to take advantage of the state's 3-cents-a-pack tax. There are approximately 150 Internet cigarette sales operations nationwide.
A General Accounting Office report issued this week puts Internet tobacco sales in the United States at $5 billion by 2005 and predicts states with high tobacco taxes could lose $1.4 billion in revenue. ''We can offer lower prices because we are located in Kentucky which has one of the lowest cigarette tax rates in the nation,'' boasts cigarettesforless.com, which sells a carton of Marlboro cigarettes for $28.99, compared with $54.90 in Massachusetts.

''I've yet to see one Internet company out there that is collecting taxes and verifying age,'' Mark Smith, spokesman for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., told Thursday's Louisville Courier-Journal. ''It's really irresponsible what's happening right now. This stuff is dangerous, and it's cheap cigarettes online going to increase as the price of cigarettes gets so expensive.'' Unlike the independent Internet tobacco sellers, Brown & Williamson collects federal and home state taxes and verifies age.

The GAO has suggested giving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms authority to take over cheap cigarettes online enforcement of the Jenkins Act, which requires an out-of-state buyer's tax authority to be notified. Online sellers, however, maintain the Internet Tax Freedom Act makes them exempt from the Jenkins Act.