ABTC working on memo to stop carding seniors

The Division of Alcoholic Beverage & Tobacco Control is planning to issue a memo to all retailers in the CNMI allowing them to use common sense when applying Pubic Law 11-75 to cigarette buyers, most especially senior citizens.

That law limits the sale of tobacco to persons over 18 years old and requires establishments to ask everyone—regardless of age—to present a government-issued identification card.

ABTC director David R. Maratita told Saipan Tribune that they are currently working with the Office of Attorney General to come up with a memorandum to specifically address the issue.

“Please understand that we are only enforcing what is written in the law. We are also addressing the issue by working with AG by issuing a memo to try and pacify complaints regarding this mandatory ID carding,” he said.

Maratita acknowledged that while the mandatory cigarette carding law has been in existence since 1999, ABTC only began implementing it this year by conducting its Responsible Alcohol and Tobacco Sales and Service Training.

The workshop is required of all workers of retail outlets that sell alcohol and tobacco on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

‘Ridiculous, insane’

ABTC’s 100 percent mandatory carding of all cigarette buyers caught Senate floor leader Pete Reyes’ ire during a Senate session on Friday.

Reyes, who is retiring after the 18th Legislature, said retail staff should use common sense when carding individuals buying tobacco who are obviously more than 18 years old.

He also called on ABTC to clarify some sections of the law and even requested the Senate to hold a hearing to finally get to the bottom of the issue “that is coming to be a burden to the community.”

“It is very degrading if a person like me walks into a store and is required to produce an ID. Stores are required to do that or their license will be revoked. But I have yet to see a 17-year-old young man who is like me, with grey hair and aging, who walks into a store to buy cigarettes.”

He also urged his colleagues from Tinian and Rota to support him on the issue because the mandatory 100 percent carding of all cigarette and alcohol purchases will also be applied on the two islands where ABTC will also be conducting its workshops.

“This is really tantamount to harassment. Are we going to just sit around and not react to this kind of stupidity? I don’t think you should go out and ask a person who’s visibly over 60 years old to produce an ID card. This is ridiculous! This is insane!”

Community reaction

ABTC’s 100 percent mandatory carding of all cigarette and alcohol purchases has already created tension in the counters of retails outlets on Saipan.

For instance, a Twins Supermarket Dandan staff said they get shouted and berated almost everyday because of ABTC requiring them to finally apply the law.

“It’s hard but we have to do it because this is what they told us to do during the workshop,” the staff told Saipan Tribune.

Department of Public Works staff Rita Ilal said she’s in favor of stricter enforcement of PL 11-75 because it keeps underage youth from buying cigarettes.

The Chalan Laulau resident, however, said that you really couldn’t blame senior citizens who get irritated if retail stores ask for identification cards.

Her 68-year-old father, for example, got worked up because a staff at Hannam store in Koblerville always cards him when he buys his favorite pack of cigarettes, although he already showed them his ID several times.

She said the enforcement doesn’t make sense if staff already knows the person and when he or she is obviously more than 18 years old.

Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) said he fully supports Reyes’ stand on the 100 percent mandatory carding of alcohol and cigarette purchases.

He, however, confirmed what Maratita said that Attorney General Gilbert Birnbrich is already looking at the issue to come up with a “solution so as not to unnecessarily burden senior citizens.”