ID Checks Don't Deter
Teens from Buying Cigs
Excerpt By Charnicia E. Huggins, Reuter's Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teens can often illegally buy cigarettes, even when they show store clerks a valid photo ID that proves they're underage, a new study shows.

In fact, store clerks in the study were much more likely to sell cigarettes to minors who presented identification than to those who had no ID-regardless of the date of birth on the ID--a team of Colorado researchers reports.

The "terrible irony" of this finding is that teens who proved they were too young were more likely to get cigarettes than those who were not able to verify their underage status, lead study author Dr. Arnold H. Levinson of the AMC Cancer Research Center in Lakewood, Colorado, told Reuters Health.

"The issue is that we remain unable so far to control access to cigarettes to kids," he added.

For the study, a group of 14- to 17-year-olds made 1,080 attempts to purchase cigarettes in retail stories in urban and suburban communities in Colorado. They carried a driver's license or other state-issued photo identification half of the time, and no identification the other half of the time.

Overall, 13% of the attempts resulted in illegal cigarette sales, Levinson and his team report in the December issue of Tobacco Control.

In almost 9 out of every 10 attempts, store clerks asked the teens to show proof of age, but those who made this request were six times more likely to sell cigarettes to minors who presented identification documenting their true age than to those who did not, the report indicates.

The reason for this is unknown, according to Levinson. "Whether it's because the clerks are just pretending to check or are too busy or can't do the math, we don't know yet why it happens," he said in a statement.

"My guess is that most stores are complying with the law, but that's not good enough," Levinson told Reuters Health.

Consequently, "we're failing" if we believe that one of the ways to keep minors from starting to smoke is to prevent them from buying cigarettes and to prevent stores from selling cigarettes to them, said Levinson, who conducted the research with colleagues at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Colorado Tobacco Enforcement Unit in Denver.

But the researcher does not suggest that these ideas be abandoned altogether.

"I am not ready to give up on the idea of keeping cigarettes sales to kids from happening," Levinson said, "(but) the methods we're using are not doing the job."

His co-author Dr. Tim Byers added, "There is no more important public health threat than nicotine addiction among youth who are beginning to smoke.

"This study has identified a big crack in the enforcement system, and reminds us that we need to redouble efforts on many fronts to protect our children from the harm that tobacco will bring," he said in a statement.

The study findings will be presented this week in San Francisco at the 2002 US National Conference on Tobacco Control.

SOURCE: Tobacco Control 2002;11:296-299.

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