Aug 28, 2017

By: Elizabeth Tansing, Director, State Government Relations. Food Marketing Institute 

We CardSeptember is We Card Awareness Month, and it’s a great time to train or re-train employees and raise awareness of the FDA regulations and state law compliance on the sale of tobacco.

The We Card Program, Inc. is a national non-profit organization serving the nation's retailers of tobacco, e-cigarettes, vapor products and other age-restricted products. The Food Marketing Institute (FMI), along with other national trade associations, sits on the Board of Directors of We Card. FMI supports the mission of We Card's ongoing efforts to raise awareness of responsible retailing and age verification requirements and to educate and train retail employees to identify and prevent underage attempts to purchase age-restricted products. 

Governors from the following states have issued proclamations designating September as We Card Awareness Month: Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Maine (Maine issued a letter of support), Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.

While many states have achieved successfully low percentages in their sales to minors, there remain a few states with high FDA inspection violation rates. They are Arizona (20.61%), Michigan (25.91%), Missouri (21.22%), North Carolina (32.08%), North Dakota (22.62%), Oklahoma (34.26%) and Wisconsin (22.84%).

FMI encourages all retailers to continue in their efforts to successfully identify and prevent age-restricted product sales to minors. There are many resources available from We Card.

We Card resources include:  

  •  We Card’s 2018 materials will be available to order on September 1, 2017 at www.search4gear.com
  • Three states raised the purchase age for tobacco to 21 this year: Oregon (effective 8/9/17); New Jersey (effective 11/1/17); and Maine (effective 7/1/18). Get an updated state law summary or a Federal Law Summary on FDA regulated products and requirements of retailers. See We Card's Resource Center at www.wecard.org.

Merchant education is important because retailers are on the frontlines in the effort to reduce youth access to tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaping products and alcohol products.