Counter Tools mapped the retailers required to participate by zip code across the country and the relative density of retailers required to post corrective statements by state.  Check it out here.

ᐧ

From October 10th – November 8th, we’re calling on you to submit photos documenting the tobacco industry’s pernicious marketing tactics in the retail environment for the chance to win some sweet CounterTobacco.org swag, bragging rights, and the satisfaction of exposing Big Tobacco’s latest scheme.

You don’t even have to go into a store to participate! We have a whole category dedicated to the tobacco advertisements that often blanket the exterior of tobacco retailers. We know many of you also have some great photos you’ve taken during store assessments or other visits to stores in the past – you can enter those, too!

The tobacco industry spends nearly $1 million every hour to market their deadly products – most of it at the point of sale. The Surgeon General has concluded that exposure to this retail marketing encourages smoking and undermines quit attempts. And it’s happening in YOUR community. Show us how by taking a snapshot and entering the contest today!

Find all details – including categories, rules, and FAQs – and enter your photos here: https://countertobacco.org/media-gallery/photo-contest/

The tobacco industry spends the large majority of all of their marketing dollars in the retail environment – to the tune of over $7 billion dollars in 2020 alone, amounting to nearly $1 million per hour. And they’re spending it there for good reason – because they know exposure to tobacco marketing in retail stores leads kids to start using tobacco products and makes it harder for adults who currently use tobacco to quit. Now they must use the retail environment to also tell the harsh truth about the deadly products they aggressively market and sell and how they have lied about their health impacts for decades.

Read more about the corrective statements requirement on Countertobacco.org.

The racketeering verdict was the result of a lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice and six intervening public health groups: Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund (a 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids), American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and National African American Tobacco Prevention Network.

On December 20, 2019, federal legislation was signed into law raising the minimum legal sales age for tobacco from 18 to 21 nationwide. The FDA has stated on their website that “It is now illegal for a retailer to sell any product – including cigarettes, cigars, and e-cigarettes – to anyone under 21. FDA will provide additional details on this issue as they become available.” The FDA must publish a final rule updating its current regulations to implement and enforce the rule within 180 days. This is a positive step forward for tobacco use prevention and is the result of the hard work of advocates around the country and grassroots efforts at the local and state level. At the time of enactment of the federal law, 19 states and over 530 cities and counties across the country had passed their own “Tobacco 21” laws.

“Tobacco 21” policies are a way to keep harmful, addictive products – like cigarettes, cigars, and electronic nicotine systems – out of the reach of young people, whose developing brains are being wired with lifelong habits. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, over 80% of adults who still smoke got started before they turned 18, and nearly 95% started before age 21.^[1] Many of the states that have increased the minimum legal sales age to 21 have seen fewer young adults become smokers as a result. Raising the minimum legal sale age to 21, along with proven tobacco control strategies, can help prevent youth tobacco use.

However, in order to be effective, any law must be properly enforced. The new federal law presents an opportunity for states and localities to pass or strengthen their own age of sale laws with stringent enforcement requirements that ensure retailers are following the law. Read more about strong enforcement practices here. In particular, for states that lack licensing requirements for tobacco retailers, this presents an opportunity to implement licensing and permit localities to do the same. Licensing allows governmental agencies to keep track of who is selling tobacco, ensure that they are following age of sale and other point-of-sale laws with the threat of license suspension and/or revocation for repeated violations, and has been shown to reduce sales to minors as well as reduce youth use and initiation of both cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Learn more about licensing and zoning here.

The new Tobacco 21 law must also be implemented and enforced equitably. In particular, this is an opportunity for states and localities to update the language in their youth prevention laws to remove ineffective purchase, use, and possession provisions that may be inequitably enforced against youth of color and ensure that the tobacco industry and retailers are held accountable instead of punishing youth who are the victims of Big Tobacco’s targeted marketing and products designed to addict.

This is also a time for vigilance against preemption. Many existing state youth access laws that are weak, unenforceable, and/or preemptive were put into place when states were required to set the minimum legal sales age to 18 as part of the Synar amendment. While this new federal Tobacco 21 law does not require states to update their own laws, many may choose to do so, and tobacco companies will likely try to influence that process. The federal Tobacco 21 policy enjoyed the support of Big Tobacco companies, who may be hoping that this will squash or delay efforts to pass additional needed tobacco prevention policies, such as removing menthol and all other flavored tobacco products from the market.

While a higher minimum legal sales age is a major step forward for tobacco control across the US, it is important to remember that this is one piece of the puzzle to limit youth access to tobacco exposure and the effects of tobacco marketing. Advocates must continue to push for other best practices and evidence-based strategies, including raising the price of deadly tobacco products and comprehensive flavor bans.

Learn more about Tobacco 21 policies on CounterTobacco.org

In a statement released on March 4, 2019, the FDA announced new actions taken by the agency to warn Walgreens and 15 other corporate-owned chains and franchise stores, including Walmart, with violation rates greater than 15%. Since then, we have seen several chains announce actions they plan to take to reduce youth access to tobacco:

• Walgreens – In an announcement on April 23, 2019, Walgreens Boots Alliance announced it would raise the age of purchase for tobacco products in Walgreens stores nationwide to 21, effective September 1, 2019. While this is a positive step forward, it is not enough. As a pharmacy and a company that claims to be “at the corner of happy and healthy,” Walgreens should not also be selling the only legal product that, when used as intended, kills half its users and is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the country. Since its rival CVS ended all tobacco sales in 2014, public health groups have been calling on Walgreens to do the same. Its shareholders have called on them to do the same, and their customers would support the move. Still, they have so far only piloted an end to tobacco sales in 17 stores in Gainesville, FL. Their move to raise the age to 21, while seemingly progressive at face-value, came only after being put “on notice” by the FDA for having the highest violation rate (22%) of any pharmacy chain in the country. As of today, 13 states and over 450 localities have passed Tobacco 21 laws, and there are currently several proposals to raise the age to 21 federally. Given that context, Walgreens’ corporate policy move made earlier than required is not so bold, but rather a smart PR move for the company.

• Rite-Aid: On the same day as Walgreens, Rite-Aid made a similar move and announced they were also raising the age to buy tobacco in their stores to 21, effective 90 days from the announcement (It should be noted that Walgreens recently purchased 1,651 Rite Aid stores nationally.) They also announced that they would stop selling e-cigarettes in their stores. Unless and until e-cigarettes are approved by the FDA as a cessation aid, they along with all other tobacco products should not be sold in pharmacies. However, while they are not safe particularly for youth, young adults, pregnant women, or adults who do not currently use tobacco products, e-cigarette are generally recognized as being safer than cigarettes (though that is a very low bar) and according to the CDC, “have the potential to benefit adult smokers who are not pregnant if used a complete substitute for regular cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products.” Rite-Aid’s decision to stop selling e-cigarettes while continuing to sell more harmful tobacco products like cigarettes and cigars makes no sense, health-wise.

• Walmart: On May 8, 2019, Walmart announced that they, too, were raising the age to buy tobacco in their stores to 21 starting July 1, 2019. They also announced that they would stop selling “fruit and dessert-flavored” e-cigarettes. This action also came in response to FDA’s request for action and threat of fines for Walmart’s 17% violation rate. Flavors are a large part of the appeal of e-cigarettes for youth, and removing some youth appealing products from their stores is a good step, though a better step would be to remove all flavors other than tobacco. Even better? Remove all flavored tobacco products. And what would be best? Remove all tobacco products. Walmart, like Walgreens and Rite-Aid, has a pharmacy, and continuing to sell tobacco products sends a mixed message to customers about health. Pharmacists and the public overwhelmingly agree that tobacco has no place in pharmacies and support policies to prohibit the sale of tobacco in pharmacies. Some state and local governments have made that a reality: 21 locations in California, 6 locations in New York, and 187 locations in Massachusetts–as well as the state of Massachusetts–all have passed policies that prohibit the sale of tobacco in any pharmacy. Learn more about tobacco-free pharmacy policies here.

It is important to acknowledge Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and Walmart for the steps they are taking to reduce youth access to tobacco products in their stores. Within states, cities, and counties that have not yet raised the minimum legal sales age to 21, these changes could start to make a difference. In 2014 when CVS announced its decision to stop selling tobacco products, becoming the first retail pharmacy chain in the U.S. to take such action, it made an impact. Following the chain’s removal of tobacco products from its stores, total cigarette purchases in states where CVS holds significant market share declined by 1%, and smokers who had previously purchased their cigarettes exclusively at CVS were up to twice as likely to stop buying cigarettes entirely.[Polinkski et al, 2017]. However, single corporations do not operate in a vacuum. In a move in the opposite direction, Family Dollar and Dollar General started selling tobacco in late 2012 and early 2013, which increased tobacco retailer density in some regions, even after CVS ended sales.[Hall et al, 2019] A recent study conducted in six southeastern states found that this resulting increase in retailer density impeded progress in smoking reduction. [Hall et al, 2019] This points to the need for local action to limit access to tobacco in other ways, such as by requiring a license to sell tobacco and setting a cap on the total number of tobacco retailer licenses allowed in a jurisdiction.

Walmart, Walgreens, and Rite-Aid are not the only retail chains with high violation rates. The FDA found the following violation rates amongst all corporate-owned or franchised store inspections since the FDA’s retailer compliance check program began in 2010:

• Marathon, Exxon, Sunoco, BP, Citgo, and Mobil stores: 35-44%
• Shell, Chevron, Casey’s General Stores, and 7-Eleven: 25-34%
• Family Dollar, Kroger, Circle K, Walmart, and Walgreens: 15-24%

The most egregious violators, while not pharmacies, have not yet publicly announced any steps to reduce those rates. Federal, state, and local governments can and should ensure that they are complying with the law.

While voluntary corporate action is welcome, governmental policy can have a bigger impact and a much bigger reach. State and local governments do not need to wait for corporations to do the right thing—nor should they.

The FDA stated that, “Ignoring the law and then paying associated fines and penalties should not simply be viewed as a cost of doing business.” We agree, and we know that tobacco retailer licensing systems, particularly at the local level, allow better monitoring of retailer compliance and allow for a wider range of penalties, including having a retailer’s license to sell tobacco products suspended or revoked for repeated violations.

Let’s keep the pressure on corporations to do more AND let’s keep the pressure on federal, state, and local government to take steps to make these and more comprehensive tobacco control policies a reality across all communities and for all retailers.

Walgreens Image credit: http://fortune.com/fortune500/walgreens-boots-alliance/