State and Federal Compliance With the Synar Amendment

Abstract

States that demonstrated remarkable progress were balanced by states with worsening performance; as a whole there was no significant national progress toward reducing the availability of tobacco to youths. This failure can be attributed to inadequate resources devoted to enforcement and reliance on merchant education in lieu of bona fide law enforcement.

Enforcement of underage sales laws as a predictor of daily smoking among adolescents – a national study

“…Inaccuracy in the measurement of compliance results in misclassification of exposure status, increasing the risk of failing to detect a real effect. Thus, the fact that compliance checks conducted by decoys are a poor measure of the ability of real underage smokers to purchase tobacco,[ 49 ] that states used different aged youth and different protocols to measure compliance, that states have used 14 different protocol procedures that might bias their surveys to produce artificially high compliance rates,[ 50 ] and that statewide compliance rates mask substantial variability in the compliance rates experienced by youths living in different communities within a state, all worked to obscure the association between true compliance and youth smoking.…”

“…The surveys include a representative statewide sample of tobacco retailers and produce a compliance rate which indicates the percentage of merchants in compliance (with a 95% confidence interval of no more than +/- 3%). State protocols vary in aspects that influence the measured rate of compliance such as the age of the youths and whether they offer proof of age [ 36 - 38 ]. The first year in which all states collected compliance data was 1997 [ 39 ].…”

Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth

“…34 Presumably, these same interests in regard to advertising for marijuana products also would be protected. DiFranza 35 has demonstrated that both the states and the federal government are poorly enforcing the Synar Amendment, which requires states to control the sale of tobacco products to those younger than 18 years. Legalization of marijuana for adults but not adolescents would necessitate additional law enforcement burdens on a system that currently is not meeting its regulatory obligations.…”

Tobacco Control for Clinicians Who Treat Adolescents

“…Ten years later, some states have made exemplary progress, while many have been quite ineffectual 98 . A recent review blamed the poor performance of many states on their failure to devote adequate resources to enforcement 99 . Cost should not be a barrier to enforcement; a model program could be generously funded with a tax of only one or two cents per pack of cigarettes 98 .…”