I am not sure if you have to be 18 or 19 to buy smokes. I do know that you have to be 19 to buy booze and to work in the liquor store. So……. how can stores that sell cigarettes have a 16 year old working in the smoke shop?
I am really pissed off when some kid of 16 asks me for my ID when I go to buy smokes, I am 39 and just dont agree.
—love to smoke
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.
I always thought you had to be 19 to sell smokes.
The person working probably is 19 , but just looks really young. I was behind two girls at the LC the other day that looked like they were about 12. One actually acted surprised and offended that she was being ID’d. It made me laugh.
You do ahve to be 19 to sell smokes!
and Kirbul is right they are prob 19 but look younger!
Agree with all of the above. You have to be 19 to sell cigarettes.
Frig I’m in my late 20s and I don’t look a day over 18, myself…so some people look REALLY young.
Cigarettes, booze and lotto – all sold by folks 19 and over. Its part of the reguations.
Are you guys sure? I had plenty of friends in high school who worked at gas stations and sold cigrettes. Lotto too…
Well myself, as well as several 15 and 16 year-olds at my work sell lotto to people as part of the job. Soooo not too sure how strict those regulations are. I think it`s ridiculous.
I worked at a gas station through the ages of 15-17 and I would occasionally “sell” cigarettes if I did support for store-staff instead of the pumps.
Its still illegal – and a few times I was corrected and eventually told, “you can wait on customers purchasing goods, not tobacco or lotto. you have to be 19.”
It certainly does happen that some minors do sell lotto and cigarettes, however it is still illegal I’m sure. They’re all regulated under the same bodies (alcohol, gaming and tobacco).
Your stores may be doing it, however if a rep from the province came in and saw it, it could severely mess with your license and business. A call to the AGC could shake things up for stores that practice this. Cops may not enforce it, but I’ve met cops that told me “its illegal to NOT have your ID on you at all times.”
Hate to break it to you, folks, but a store that has minors selling cigarettes and lotto are breaking the law. Seriously, if the AGC were to do an audit or make random visits – its the stores ass.
Just because its “done” or “you do it” doesn’t mean you’re in the right or its legal. Some business owners and bosses are just plain stupid and think that most laws will not apply to them. It happens.
..Or they genuinely don’t realize what they’re doing is illegal. They’d still get a hard knuckle-rapping from the AGC (they’d have a hard time claiming ignorance on that one), but it might not have even occurred to the store owners that their staff have to be at least 19.
^Exactly, Heathro!
Ignorance is no excuse. If you’re in business long enough you should be aware of such things.
What I can’t understand is why you’re allowed to vote at 18 but can’t drink or smoke until a year later.
Right to vote = something they’ll exercise 10-20 years later.
Privilege to purchase booze/smokes/lotto legally = something they’re attempting much earlier.
Would you prefer to see NS 18ers at your local establishments?
Can’t be worse than the 19s and some 40s and 50s for that matter.
The whole selling laws are garbage. You can take take your kid into a liquor store to buy well advertised plus free samples of alcohol, but a tabacconist (where kids aren’t even allowed in have to cover up their wares. Completely asinine.
Go Bob Gee. I hope next time they carry through and that you kick their ass in the Supreme Court of Canada. Wait that’s whyy they’re always staying the charges. LOL
I like the European way of doing things: drinking at 16, driving at 19. (Or something like that.) This way kids have a couple of years to learn how to drink, and how much they can handle. Then they learn how to drive. I wonder if their drinking and driving numbers are any lower than ours..
The Euro nations vary by state, Heathro. I dated a German about 10 years ago and her system involved being able to purchase wine and beer at age 16, but spirits and hard liquors at 18.
She was driving at 16.
regulations are not laws… I sold smokes and lotto underage for years and have never heard about this…