Tobacco sales
to Hawaii youths
fall significantlyA health expert credits aggressive
outreach to kids and merchants
Illegal tobacco sales to Hawaii youths have dropped to 6.2 percent from 45 percent in eight years -- one of the lowest rates in the nation, officials said today.
"This is due to an aggressive, engaging anti-smoking campaign with rap music, extensive merchant education and a print campaign that recognizes local merchants who complied and did not comply with illegal sales to minors law," said state Health Director Chiyome Fukino.
Teams of volunteers 15 to 17 years old and adult observers randomly visited 209 stores across the state last spring trying to buy cigarettes to see if retailers are complying with tobacco laws.
Only 13 stores, or 6.2 percent, made illegal sales. This was a slight increase from last year's 6.0 percent.
The Tobacco Stings program is conducted by the health department's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division and the University of Hawaii's Cancer Research Center.
The state is required under the Synar Regulation of the federal Public Health Service Act to do a random unannounced survey of retailers each year.
If more than 20 percent of stores are selling to minors, Hawaii will lose $2.8 million, or 40 percent, of a $7 million federal block grant, said Elaine Wilson, chief of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division.
"We're doing very, very well on that," she said.
Non-compliance rates in the annual survey were: 4.9 percent for Honolulu, 9.1 percent for Kauai and 3.7 percent for Maui County. The Big Island rate plunged to 14.2 percent in this year's survey from 25 percent last year.
The Department of Health, four county Police Departments and the Cancer Research Center also conduct monthly tobacco stings to enforce the state law prohibiting tobacco sales to youths under age 18. Merchants convicted of illegal sales face a mandatory $500 fine.
The teams do 100 inspections every month in different areas.
From April 1, 2002, to March 31, this year, youths 15 to 17 years old with identification visited 1,310 retail outlets. Of those, 182 stores or 13.9 percent sold cigarettes to those who produced identification.
The fact that more sales are made to teens with identification than without indicates clerks aren't looking at the ID, Wilson said.
"They just assume if they're producing identification, they must be of age."
But there is a decrease from last year's noncompliance rate of 17.6 percent, she said. "This tells me we're making more progress than we're thinking."
