
New Jersey tobacco sales to people under 21 remains high, according to researchers at Rutgers Health, Newark, New Jersey, and Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, was conducted from August 2019 to September 2022. For the study, researchers sampled licensed tobacco retailers in both high- and low-population density municipalities within a 25-mile radius of New Brunswick, New Jersey. According to the study, retailers sold to underage purchasers 49.5% of the time.
Underage buyers 18 to 20 years old who assisted the study made 2,663 attempts at 70 different retailers to buy items such as cigarettes, cigars, electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches.
About 60% of purchase attempts involved an ID check and 15.3% of underage sales were still completed even after an ID check, the study found. Electronic ID scanning was implemented in 22.3% of purchase attempts, which resulted in a much lower rate of underage sales (3.2%).
Under New Jersey law, it is illegal for retailers to sell to persons under the age of 21. Under federal law, retailers must check the ID of anyone under the age of 30.
Another finding the researchers noted was independent convenience stores had the lowest odds of checking IDs, compared with convenience-store chains.
“We found that compliance with the law varied by store type and product type, meaning that ID checks or scans are not being done consistently across different stores and tobacco products,” said Mary Hrywna, principal investigator of the National Cancer Institute grant that funded this research and an associate professor at the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies and the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Purchase attempts for nicotine pouches were less likely to result in an ID check compared to cigarettes, the study found.
The researchers noted whether an ID was checked during each purchase attempt and whether electronic identification scanning was used. Although not required by New Jersey or federal law, some retailers use electronic ID scanning, meaning they have scanning technology to verify age using automated software.
“Raising New Jersey’s tobacco age of sale to 21 was a significant milestone, but the results of our study suggest that effective implementation of the law continues to be challenging,” Hrywna said.
In 2017, New Jersey became one of the first states to pass legislation raising the minimum age for purchasing commercial tobacco products from 19 to 21; in 2019, 21 became the minimum age nationwide.
Amanda Kong, assistant professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and an author of the study, said going forward “we hope to be able to identify modifiable factors that can help inform regulatory efforts, retailer education programs and overall compliance and enforcement to reduce and prevent tobacco use consistently among youth and young adults.”
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