It isn't hard for kids to find weapons of mass destruction. They just have to click their way to Dirt Cheap Cigarettes, one of a number of online tobacco merchants that state officials say make it all too easy for minors to score smokes.
That's why, after months of quiet investigation, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer will file suit today against five out-of-state Internet tobacco vendors, who are charged with not just peddling nicotine to children but also dodging state cigarette taxes.
The lawsuit -- I'm looking at a copy right now -- says Lockyer's office has been cooperating with authorities in as many as 39 other states to crack down on online cigarette sales. Many of those states are expected to file similar actions in the weeks ahead.
"Every day in the United States more than 2,000 children begin smoking cigarettes, and one-third of those children will die one day from tobacco- related disease," the lawsuit says, adding that an estimated 690 million packs of cigarettes are sold illegally to kids each year nationwide.
Laura Kaplan, a deputy attorney general, declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit prior to it being filed in San Diego Superior Court, where a number of tobacco cases have been heard. Nor could she specify how many tobacco sales are made to minors each year via the Net.
But Kaplan said state investigators began looking into the situation after receiving numerous complaints from parents, and found during an undercover probe that kids had no trouble purchasing cigarettes online.