Ohio Walmarts Raising Age For Tobacco-Buyers

As Ohio's state leaders publicly debate the merits of raising the state's tobacco-buying age, major retailers have begun to take their own action on the matter. Walmart and Sam's Club will now only sell tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to people that are 21 or older.

Walgreens and Rite-Aid also recently announced they would raise the age for buying tobacco products in their stores. In mid-April, Ohio's Governor Mike DeWine began lobbying for state officials to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to 21.

DeWine's 2020-2021 budget proposal includes a provision for increasing the legal age to purchase tobacco and alternative nicotine products. Currently, Ohioans must be 18 to buy such products.

Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton said e-cigarettes and other tobacco products have increased the popularity of smoking among youth. "We are seeing an explosive increase in vaping among our youth, and it's not safe for young people," said Acton.

In Ohio, about 19.5 percent of high schoolers said they used tobacco, including e-cigarettes.

In a statement provided to Patch, Juul Labs, manufacturers of Juul e-cigarettes, said they support raising the tobacco buying age to 21. That statement appears, in full, at the bottom of this article.

Walmart's decision to raise the tobacco buying age comes after the retail giant received a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about its policies to prevent underage buyers from getting their hands on tobacco and electronic nicotine. Walmart has a “robust” compliance program, Scudder said, but noted the company is unsatisfied with “falling short” of its goal of 100 percent compliance. In other words, Walmart plans to do more.

“Even a single sale to a minor is one too many, and we take seriously our responsibilities in this regard,” wrote Scudder. “So today, we sent a letter back to the FDA outlining additional measures we’re taking to keep tobacco out of the hands of minors.”

The age-bump requirement is among those measures. The company also plans to stop selling fruity and dessert-flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems, and strengthen disciplinary action for failed secret-shopper checks designed to catch cashiers who are selling tobacco products to people who are underage. These cashiers could be fired.

In Scudder’s letter to the FDA, he said the federal agency conducted about 12,800 compliance checks involving kids at both Walmart and Sam’s Club stores since 2010. The chains passed 93 percent and 99 percent of those checks, respectively, he said. Last year, Walmart stores passed 94 percent of the checks while Sam’s Club passed 100 percent.

Walmart joins CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, among others, in announcing age bumps. Walgreens will stop selling tobacco products to people under 21 beginning Sept. 1. Rite Aid plans to implement the policy at all stores by July 22.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death among Americans, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of 2017, about 34 million adults smoked cigarettes, and nearly 90 percent of smokers tried their first smoke by age 18.

Scott Gottlieb, who recently resigned as the head of the FDA, previously said in a release that everyone plays a role in keeping harmful and addictive tobacco products out of the hands of kids.

“Retailers in particular – especially those who position themselves as health-and-wellness-minded businesses – are on the frontlines of these efforts and must take that legal obligation seriously,” said Gottlieb.

About a dozen states — in addition to hundreds of cities — have raised the tobacco-buying age to 21, according to The New York Times. In 2014, CVS notably became the first national retail pharmacy chain to stop selling tobacco products in all stores.

Here is Juul Lab's full statement:

"We strongly support raising the purchasing age for all tobacco products, including vapor products, to 21 and have been actively supporting legislation to do this in states across the country and at the federal level. We cannot fulfill our mission to provide the world's one billion adult smokers with a true alternative to combustible cigarettes, the number one cause of preventable death in this country, if youth-use continues unabated. Tobacco 21 laws fight one of the largest contributors to this problem – sharing by legal-age peers – and they have been shown to dramatically reduce youth-use rates. That is why we will continue to work with lawmakers across the country to enact these effective policies."

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.