Law enforcement regulating sales to youth and possession or purchase by youth is a major component of Florida's Tobacco Pilot Program, documentably the most successful program to reduce youth tobacco use in the country. The enforcement meta evaluation (a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the methods and findings) included an analysis of data and reports accumulated during the first two years of the Florida Tobacco Pilot. Reports and available data were examined for major enforcement issues, and for continuity and discontinuity across the results. The Reports examined included: impact studies of possession enforcement on youth, three years of statewide Florida Youth Tobacco Survey results, a statewide survey of officers, media evaluations with implications for law enforcement, studies involving on-site observations of public places, opinion leader surveys, a cohort phone survey of youth, and Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco data on citations. Results indicate that enforcement reduces youth tobacco use in the general population of youth and among youth who are cited, law enforcement agencies and personnel are not involved with tobacco enforcement unless local agencies receive state support for enforcement activities, and community opinion leader support for this program is high and increasing. However, many children and parents are not aware of tobacco laws and they are particularly unaware of penalties that are most likely to dissuade youth from using tobacco. Retail Sales enforcement results indicate that most stores (over 90%) do not sell tobacco products to children and community leaders strongly support enforcement of retail sales laws.
Learning Objectives: Recognize potential benefits of a tobacco Law enforcement program, Identify key elemnts of a successful tobacco law enforcement program
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.