ADAMS, Mass. — Cumberland Farms was fined $1,000 for selling tobacco to a minor, but the violation also highlighted the need for the town to update its tobacco policies to align with state law.

 

During a routine compliance check last Thursday, a Tri-Town Health Department employee under the age of 21 attempted to purchase a pack of Camel Blue cigarettes without presenting identification at the gas station, located at 95 Commercial St. 

 

When they were able to purchase the product, the violation was documented and the town was notified. Tri-Town, a regional health collaborative for Lee, Lenox and Stockbridge, advises on policies and runs the county'sTobacco Awareness Program.

 

During a public hearing at Monday's Adams Board of Health meeting, a motion was initially made to impose a $1,000 fine and a one-day suspension to align with state law. 

 

However, the suspension was dropped because the town's current tobacco regulations do not provide for a suspension for a first violation.

 

Tri-Town Executive Director James Wilusz recommended the board follow its current regulations for this violation because retailers have copies of the existing rules and making a decision outside of that could create confusion. 

 

He suggested updating the local regulations at a future meeting, which he offered to attend to provide ideas on how to clean up the policies "a little bit."

 

Cumberland Farms manager Robert McCabe acknowledged the violation and said the employee involved was terminated following an investigation.

 

"Failure is an automatic termination because we cannot trust you to be safe in regards to handling the products around minors. We cannot have that as part of our business," he said.  

 

The store's policy requires employees to check identification for anyone who appears to be 40 or younger, verifying the photo, expiration date and birth date before scanning the ID into the register, McCabe said. The employee who made the underage sale had completed the required training and acknowledged the company's tobacco sales policy, but it had been several months since the employee's last training, he said. 

 

In addition to Tri-Town's routine checkers, McCabe said Cumberland Farms has a third-party operator that does randomized tests on its stores. 

 

Wilusz informed McCabe that state law requires retailers to check IDs for all sales of tobacco productions, not solely those who appear to be younger than 40. 

 

"We're still seeing sales across the Berkshires, and I would hope 30-plus years into tobacco control that these stores implement a system that can't be overridden," Wilusz said. 

 

"We don't condone termination of employees. There just needs to be better training, and we don't want to see sales. But we're on our seventh sale this year, most of which are from corporate stores, which is a red flag for us." 

 

McCabe asked that the board provide him the specific regulation so he can send it to corporate and have the company incorporate that requirement into its corporate training and retrain employees accordingly. 

 

"I was a teen smoker that had places in Springfield, where I grew up, selling to me at 13 years old. We all knew which places those were. I refuse to have kids suffer the health effects that I've had from that early life addiction. I refuse to allow that to be transpired onto the next generation," McCabe said. 

 

"My kids are of that generation, and I do not want them to feel the effects that I've had over the course of my life, because I got addicted to nicotine very young. It's very, very hard to get off of it when the brain's still forming at that age" 

 

Tri-Town Health Department's Tobacco Awareness Program works with local communities to enforce tobacco regulations through compliance checks, retailer training and inspections, helps Boards of Health develop tobacco-control regulations, and provides education on tobacco use and secondhand smoke. The program has been state grant funded for 30 years, Wilusz said. 

 

This year they've had seven sales throughout the Berkshires and one of the gaps the program has observed over the years is with stores providing their own training, he said. 

 

"It doesn't really mirror all the laws that are in place, [such as] Mass. General laws, state statutes, attorney general regulations, Wilusz said.