The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #63186

Lisa Lineberger¹, Jamie F. Chriqui, PhD, MHS¹, Regina el Arculli, MA², and Raedell Wallace¹. (1) Center for Health Policy and Legislative Analysis, The MayaTech Corporation, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 900, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3921, 301-587-1600, llineberger@mayatech.com, (2) Office of Policy Analysis and Response, National Cancer Institute, Building 31, Room 10A-48, 31 Center Drive, MSC 2580, Bethesda, MD 20892-2580

Nearly every state has a law that prohibits minors from purchasing, using, and/or possessing tobacco products. Of those states, over 75 percent have enacted laws that impose sanctions against minors who violate the purchase, use, and/or possession (PUP) laws. Penalties to minors for violation of PUP laws vary by state and range from fines and graduated penalties to participation in cessation programs or community service. Although PUP laws and sanctions provide a potential deterrent, many tobacco control advocates believe such laws deflect responsibility from retailers to underage youth.¹ In general, the tobacco control community has concerns with youth-penalty laws because such measures often end up being passed instead of much more effective tobacco control strategies², such as laws that impose vendor license penalties or require tobacco education and training programs.

This presentation will summarize state laws (enacted as of December 31, 2002) related to the purchase, use, and possession of tobacco products by minors as well as the mandated penalties for violations. The presentation will also compare the stringency of the penalties imposed on minors for violation of PUP laws with those imposed upon retailers for violation of youth access laws. A coding scheme will be developed to measure the extensiveness of the penalties for minors based on an assessment of the penalty structures provided in each state for a PUP law violation. Information related to the stringency of retailer penalties will be obtained from NCI’s SCLD tobacco rating system.^3,4

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to describe the provisions of state tobacco purchase, use, and possession (PUP) laws. In addition, participants will be able to compare, by state, penalties for minors who violate PUP laws to those imposed on retailers for illegally selling tobacco products to minors.

Keywords: Tobacco Policy, Youth Access

Related Web page: www.scld-nci.net/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.