Reports mixed on
youth tobacco sales

One survey shows a rise in retail
sales; another shows a drop

The number of retailers selling cigarettes to minors during state Department of Health annual inspections increased slightly over last year, but the number of stores caught in county police sting operations declined.

Of the 217 retailers the Health Department surveyed during spring break this year, 12, or 5.5 percent, sold tobacco to teenagers 17 years old or younger. Last year, 5.2 percent of the stores surveyed sold cigarettes to underage teens, the lowest in the 10 years the state has been conducting such inspections.

But in the 12 months that ended March 31, 152, or 11.5 percent, of 1,325 stores county police departments visited during year-round inspections sold cigarettes to underage teens. The percentage was 15.9 last year.

"Personally, my big goal is to try to get the disparity between the enforcement and inspections closer, and I think we made big steps forward," said David O'Riordan, of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, a partner in both the surveys and police enforcement effort.

Police operations are conducted to enforce state law prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors under 18. The Health Department surveys are done to determine the state's eligibility for federal substance abuse grants. Both involve teenage volunteers 15 to 17 years old.

A big reason for the disparity is that in the police operations, the teen volunteers have their identifications and present them if they are asked. In the Health Department inspections, the teens do not carry their IDs.

"If the teens don't have identification, then there's a guaranteed, pretty much guaranteed, no-sale," O'Riordan said.

The reason the teens do not carry their IDs during the Health Department inspections is because if retailers seize them, the teens or their adult advisers might not be able to get them back without police help, he said.

But even when store clerks do ask for identification, underage teens are still able to purchase cigarettes.

"The youth are showing them the ID, and then they're assuming that they must be of age to have the product when in actual fact they're not doing the math," O'Riordan said.

Teen volunteer Robbie Fukuhara, 17, a senior at Roosevelt High School, said he was able to purchase cigarettes at three stores on Maui. At two of them, Fukuhara said, the clerks did not ask for his identification.

"One girl, she asked, but then I guess she calculated my age wrong," he said.

O'Riordan believes more can be done to help retailers determine whether teenagers are old enough to purchase tobacco and even alcohol. One method would be to assign a different color for driver's licenses and state IDs for youths under 18 years old and another color for those under 21.