Congress told of youth smoking law problems

WASHINGTON -- State enforcement of a youth smoking law is inadequate, and the federal government should pay more attention to the problem, congressional investigators said Friday.

The General Accounting Office said states often rely on inaccurate and incomplete lists of retailers when deciding which stores to inspect, and tracking tobacco vending machines is even less successful.

The 1992 Synar Amendment -- named for the late Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla. -- requires states to ban tobacco sales to anyone under age 18. It calls for aggressive enforcement including random inspections using decoy buyers at grocery stores and other retailers.

States must outline how they have carried out the law in their annual applications for block grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The federal government can withhold funding from states that have not complied with efforts to reduce sales to minors.

The findings "show us that many states may have much higher rates of tobacco sales to children than is reported," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who called for the report.

Using children under 16 as decoy buyers is also questionable, the report said, because younger children are more likely to be turned away by retailers. Such inspections would not adequately test whether retailers "carded" older teen-agers.

Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas reported the highest percentages of inspections using by 14- and 15-year-olds.

The GAO report also faulted SAMHSA for failing to verify the accuracy of state data. Investigators said the prospect of losing grant money could be an incentive to states to underestimate violation rates.

SAMHSA spokesman Mark Weber said the agency would consider how to improve the program. "We take GAO reports very seriously," he said.

The news was not all bad.

Researchers found that the median retailer violation rate dropped from 40 percent in 1997 to 24 percent in 1999.

Violation rates ranged in 1999 from 4 percent in Maine to 47 percent in the District of Columbia.