Health, Human Performance and Recreation Department, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Family and Community Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.
Am J Prev Med. 2021 May;60(5):639-647. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2020.12.009. Epub 2021 Feb 16.
In December 2019, the U.S. raised the minimum legal sales age of tobacco to 21 years, a law commonly known as Tobacco 21. This study examines local Tobacco 21 policies for the inclusion of model policy components: comprehensive tobacco definition, age verification and tobacco access, enforcement measures, tobacco retail license, and violation penalties.
A document analysis of Tobacco 21 local policies passed in the U.S. before July 1, 2019 (N=477) was conducted in May 2020 using a Tobacco 21 policy assessment tool. Policies were coded by 2 independent coders for the inclusion of components.
Many localities included model component: comprehensive tobacco definition (65%), appearance age (70.9%), local tobacco retail license (72%), a graduated monetary penalty structure (93%), and tobacco retail license suspensions or revocations (74%) for repeated violations. However, only 17.4% of policies included an appearance age in compliance with federal law (30 years). Furthermore, few policies included enforcement components, such as a mandatory number of inspections (5.9%) or compliance checks (6.7%) per year, or a minimum age for the underage purchasers used during compliance checks (8.4%).
Local policies can play an important role in tobacco control by providing an added layer to ensure adequate enforcement of age-restriction policies and allow an avenue to introduce strict measures that may diffuse into higher branches of government for policy adoption. Although many local Tobacco 21 policies fill regulatory gaps within the state and federal laws, often there is a lack of model components to ensure that policies are implemented as intended.
2019 年 12 月，美国将烟草最低合法销售年龄提高到 21 岁，这项法律通常被称为《烟草 21 法案》。本研究考察了当地《烟草 21 法案》纳入以下示范政策组成部分的情况：全面烟草定义、年龄验证和烟草获取、执法措施、烟草零售许可证和违规处罚。
2020 年 5 月，使用《烟草 21 法案》评估工具，对 2019 年 7 月 1 日前在美国通过的《烟草 21 法案》地方政策进行了文件分析（N=477）。两名独立编码员对政策进行了编码，以确定是否包含相关组成部分。
许多地方包括了示范组成部分：全面烟草定义（65%）、外观年龄（70.9%）、当地烟草零售许可证（72%）、累进货币罚款结构（93%）和因重复违规而吊销或吊销烟草零售许可证（74%）。然而，只有 17.4%的政策包括符合联邦法律（30 岁）的外观年龄。此外，很少有政策包括执法组成部分，例如每年强制性检查次数（5.9%）或合规检查（6.7%），或在合规检查中使用的未成年购买者的最低年龄（8.4%）。
地方政策可以在烟草控制中发挥重要作用，为确保年龄限制政策得到充分执行提供了一个额外的层面，并为引入可能扩散到更高政府部门以获得政策通过的严格措施提供了途径。尽管许多地方的《烟草 21 法案》填补了州和联邦法律中的监管空白，但往往缺乏示范组成部分，无法确保政策得到有效实施。
