ID Please

We Card program is evolving to include all age-restricted products

The scene was Memorial Day weekend my senior year of high school. My best friend just turned 18, had a brand-new driver’s license and a bunch of us girls were itching to go to the beach. We hopped in her baby blue Granada — it was a hand-me-down, I am not that old — and traveled down the Garden State Parkway to Seaside Heights, N.J.

Before hitting the boardwalk, long before Snooki and The Situation made it infamous on MTV, we stopped at a local convenience store so my friend could buy a pack of cigarettes. Much to her surprise, she was proofed. You should have seen the smile on her face when she whipped out her ID, the first time she had to use it.

It may not sound strange today, but this was 20-plus years ago. While states had laws on the books regulating youth access to tobacco, they were not enforced aggressively. In fact, before that day, I didn’t even know there was an age restriction to buy tobacco products.

Then in 1992, the U.S. Congress enacted the Synar Amendment to the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act. The measure called on each state to have laws in place prohibiting the sale and distribution of tobacco products to persons under 18 and to enforce those laws effectively. The amendment also required each state to report sales statistics to the federal government.

The goal, according to Doug Anderson, president of We Card, was to keep violations at or below 20 percent. Or another way to look at it, the goal was to keep states at an 80-percent compliance rate. The target year for every state to fall in line was 2000.

Five years after the implementation of the Synar Amendment, the states had a 40-percent violation rate. Today, according to the 2012 Synar Report released in August, the rate has dropped to 9.1 percent. A large part of the decrease is due to the We Card program, which is entering its 18th year of arming retailers with the tools needed to keep tobacco products out of the hands of minors.

The program officially launched in December 1995 as the Coalition for Responsible Tobacco Retailing. Before then, there were separate programs run by manufacturers, each with their own individual responsible retailing programs. But in 1995, all those involved — manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of tobacco — came together and formed a coalition.

The coalition formally changed its name to We Card around 2009.

“It represented a unified effort,” Anderson said. “Historically, I think it’s rare for any industry to gather in a unified fashion and have staying power over such a long period of time.”

We Card began with an aggressive approach. In its first full year, the program’s focus was to get tangible materials into the hands of retailers. The coalition worked its resources. Manufacturers employed their sales forces to talk to retailers; national trade associations like NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, the National Grocers Association, the Food Marketing Institute and the American Wholesale Marketers Association reached out to its members; and more than 200 state-level trade associations began to spread the word.

“There was a lot of crossover pollination going on, but they all heard the same message: We Card exists and it’s a resource for you, and it’s a resource to inform you about all the different state laws,” Anderson explained.

In the early days, the We Card kits included VHS tapes; cassette tapes; the now-familiar red and yellow signage warning “Under 18, No Tobacco: We Card;” the We Card daily age-of-purchase calendar, which is still in existence today and is the single most popular item; and window/door decals. Classroom training in all 50 states began in 1996.

The kits proved to be a big hit among the retailer community and September quickly became the start of the annual rush to order new We Card materials for the coming year. As a result, September is now known as We Card Awareness Month.

“Literally, since the first year, we have had a Christmas-in-September effect,” said Anderson. “I think it is testament not only to their planning for the coming year, but it is another responsible retailing behavioral pattern.”

As times have changed, so has We Card. VHS tapes gave way to DVDs. The program moved to a point-and-click online training program, though rudimentary, in 2000 and went to 100-percent online training in 2006–2007. We Card also licenses its training program to retailers so they can incorporate it into their overall employee training programs.

It is hard to put a definitive figure to the number of retailers who participate in the program. However, Anderson noted that We Card “has trained hundreds and thousands of employees” since its inception.

A study conducted among California retailers approximately five years ago found that 80 percent of retailers had We Card signs.

In addition, retailers have developed their own training tools based on We Card materials. “That’s good. We have changed the carding culture where before there was none for tobacco,” he added.

Aside from the evolution of the physical materials, We Card is constantly undergoing its own content evolution. The program has been adjusting its training efforts as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues guidance on approved tobacco retailer training programs.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 doesn’t require retailers to implement training programs. However, the statute does provide for lower civil monetary penalties for violations of access, sale and distribution, and advertising and promotion restrictions for retailers who have implemented a training program that complies with the standards developed by the FDA for such programs. The agency intends to release regulations establishing standards for approved retail training programs soon.

“I understand there has been some confusion with retailers [about approved training programs]. I understand their issue, but I discourage any fence-sitting out there,” Anderson said. “They need to move in a direction.”

Since beginning compliance checks, the FDA has conducted nearly 200,000 checks, issued 10,000 warning letters and, by Anderson’s count, doled out 751 civil money penalties. “Not doing anything and waiting for the regulation to come out is sort of playing with fire,” he cautioned.

Another change to We Card is happening with the rising popularity of electronic cigarettes. Two e-cigarette companies, NJOY and Ballantyne Brands, have joined the We Card coalition and the program is now incorporating e-cigarette regulations into its training materials. At least 20 states regulate the products.

We Card is not stopping there, either. In 2010, the nonprofit coalition changed its mission to expand beyond tobacco and include all age-restricted products.

It’s safe to say a lot has changed since that Memorial Day weekend all those years ago.