Synar Amendment Reduces Underage Tobacco Sales to 9.1%

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released its yearly report on the rate of retailers selling tobacco to minors in each US state, following the Synar Amendment requirements. For the seventh year in a row, every single state has achieved a retailer violation rate of 20 per cent or less (as is stipulated by the amendment), which is considerable progress if we take into account that, in 1997, the national average of retailer violations was 40 per cent.

This has been the case since 2005, when the rate of violations dropped below the 20 per cent limit set by the Synar Amendment. The 2012 report has informed that the country has successfully achieved a national retailer violation rate of 9.1 per cent, which includes the nine states which reported a rate of less than 5 per cent.

Why Is the Synar Amendment Important?

The current leading preventable cause of death in the United States is tobacco use, which causes one of every five deaths each year. The amendment tries to reduce the use of tobacco by diverting people from consuming it at a young age, which is when most tobacco users originally start to consume it. According to statistics, 88 per cent of adult smokers reported to have started before the age of 18. The efforts are therefore concentrated on avoiding the access of the young to tobacco in the hope that they will not take up smoking as adults.

Legislation Leading to Success

The Synar Amendment is included under the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act from 1992. The aim of the amendment is to effectively enforce laws which prohibit the sale of tobacco to anyone under 18 years old. It also requires that each state conducts inspections every year to tobacco retail stores and report the findings to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the case a state does not comply with the requirements established by the amendment, they would be subject to a penalty of the 40 per cent of the total funding destined to substance abuse prevention and treatment.