State inspectors seize outlawed cigarettes sale.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Long-burning cigarettes have been outlawed in Oregon for nearly two months, but stores are continuing to sell them to consumers, according to state inspectors who have seized more than 1,000 packs.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal so far has stockpiled 1,135 packs of confiscated cigarettes that were seized from stores because they don't comply with Oregon's prohibition against the sale of smokes that don't meet "fire-safe" standards.

Anita Phillips, license and permit services manager for the fire marshal, said the seizures from five retailers throughout the state have been disconcerting, given the efforts during the second half of 2007 to help wholesalers, distributors and retail stores to unload the old-style cigarettes before the new law's Jan. 1 effective date.

"What we really want them to do is take them off the shelves," she said.

One of the seizures of noncompliant cigarettes occurred at CG Market in Cottage Grove, Phillips said. A call to the store for comment ended when a clerk said she was too busy to discuss that matter and hung up.

Phillips said other seizures occurred at corner markets, a liquor store and a grocer in Philomath, Brooks, Aloha and Beaverton. In each case, the confiscations resulted from tips to the Fire Marshal's Office from Department of Revenue inspectors who were checking to see that the tax stamps had been properly affixed.

Oregon is one of several states to adopt fire-safe standards in the past few years. Currently, 22 states impose this standard.

A fire-safe cigarette is designed to go out when left unattended. Typically, cigarette manufacturers wrap cigarettes with two or three thin bands of less-porous paper that act as "speed bumps" to slow down a burning cigarette, according to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes Web site. If a fire-safe cigarette is left unattended, the burning tobacco will reach one of these speed bumps and self-extinguish.

The state last year ordered manufacturers to stop shipping old-style cigarettes on July 1. Phillips said that should have given wholesalers and distributors enough time to send their soon-to-be-banned products to states where they could still be sold and for retailers to liquidate their supplies.

Joe Gilliam, president of the Oregon-based Northwest Grocery Association, said he has not heard that retailers in his trade group were having trouble complying with the law.

He said the lead-up time and expanded market for fire-safe cigarettes - given recent adoption of similar standards by Washington and California - made the law fairly easy to comply with.

"My guys tell me this is doable and not that big an issue," Gilliam said.

Portland-based cigarette distributor Alan Campf said it's been a rougher adjustment for those further up the supply chain, as well as for smaller, independent retailers. He said his company, A&S Marketing, took a loss of several thousand dollars selling non-complaint cigarettes last fall at deep discounts to retailers. It now appears, he said, that many of those retailers haven't been able to move the cigarettes quickly enough.

"Unfortunately in this industry, some items just aren't selling as rapidly as they should, and some retailers are just stuck," said Campf, who distributes cigarettes throughout the Willamette Valley, the Portland area and along the coast.

He said the state made matters worse by requiring the payment of tax stamps totaling $11.80 per carton before the cigarettes were sold to consumers. The sum could not be recouped if the cigarettes went unsold.

A Department of Revenue letter went out last week informing distributors that a temporary rule would allow it to refund the amount paid in taxes on now-banned cigarettes.

Campf said the refunds should have been offered from the start.

"They should have come out with this in June," he said.