Youth bring tobacco prevention message to retailers

Teen tobacco use prevention is multifaceted. In Watauga County, high school students have long been involved in educating their peers about the risks of tobacco use. But education alone does not keep young people from experimenting with and becoming addicted to tobacco.

The members of the Watauga High Against Tobacco (WHAT) Club recently took their message about tobacco use prevention to the community. Club members have learned that one aspect of prevention is limiting access. If teens cannot get tobacco, they cannot become smokers or spit tobacco users.

The WHAT club has chosen to collaborate with Alcohol Law Enforcement to remind retailers that North Carolina law prohibits the sale of tobacco to minors. To make compliance with the law easier, ALE devised the Red Flag Campaign. The Red Flag Campaign provides a visual cue to assist clerks in identifying underage customers. Each North Carolina driver’s license is color coded. The “red flag” on the licenses of those under 18 indicates “Stop!” and reminds retail employees to check the date of birth. A yellow flag placed on the licenses of those between 18 and 21 suggests caution since persons in this age group can legally purchase tobacco but not alcohol. A green flag gives stores the go ahead to sell both tobacco and alcohol to license holders.

Members of the WHAT club have visited all of the tobacco retailers in Watauga County. They carried information about the Red Flag Campaign along with posters that can be placed at the point of sale. Youth also offered retailers a “take a penny-leave a penny” coin tray. The youth devised the coin tray to be a reminder about tobacco use. Each coin tray says: “Under 18? Tobacco makes no ‘cents.’” The coin tray also bears the Tobacco Reality Unfiltered (TRU) logo—the brand logo for youth tobacco use prevention in North Carolina.

Marisa Hoover, co-president of the WHAT club, was pleased with the response she got from the businesses she visited. “We are hoping our efforts will help reduce the sale of tobacco products to underage teens,” she said. “We are doing the best we can to prevent more deaths from tobacco use in Watauga County.”

The WHAT club receives funding from North Carolina’s Health and Wellness Trust Fund. The N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund helps make North Carolina stronger, both physically and economically, by funding programs that promote preventive health. Created by the General Assembly in 2000 to allocate a portion of North Carolina’s share of the national tobacco settlement, HWTF has invested $199 million to support preventive health initiatives and $102 million to fund prescription drug assistance programs. For more information, visit www.HealthWellNC.com<http://www.healthwellnc.com/>.