Commentary: A Gadget Can't Fix What's Wrong with the Tobacco Distribution System

Abstract

H HEN the commercial availability of tobacco to youth is effectively restricted, their use of tobacco drops substantially (I-3). Consequently, the sale of tobacco to minors has been outlawed in all 5o states and in many other countries. Enforcement of such laws is occurring to some degree in every state, and national surveys show youth smoking rates declining steadily for the past several years (4). However, the full public health benefit of access restrictions has not been realized, since minors are successful in about i out of 5 attempts to purchase tobacco, according to state surveys (5). States have invested heavily in merchant education. Such programs seek to convince store owners of the importance of complying with the law. Responsible retailers have instituted training programs for their employees. Sales clerks are taught the specifics of the law and are trained to challenge customers for proof of age. The tobacco manufacturers have stepped in to provide free signage and date-of-birth calendars to assist clerks in identifying underage customers. Compliance with the law is encouraged through enforcement inspections that employ minors as shoppers. Despite these efforts, clerks continue to sell to minors at unacceptably high rates. Many clerks find it difficult to determine, based on a claimed date of birth, whether a customer has reached the legal age limit. Faced with the task of performing the mental arithmetic, many clerks simply fake it and sell tobacco to anyone who can produce an ID. This leads to the paradoxical observation that youths are more likely to be sold tobacco if they hand the clerk an ID that proves that they are underage than if they produce no ID at all.