Impediments to the enforcement of youth access laws

Objective-To recognise obstacles to the implementation of the effective enf orcement of tobacco sales laws and to identify measures that could be taken to overcome these obstacles. Design-Interviews were conducted with health department officials in Massac husetts communities to determine why their efforts to prevent illegal sales of tobacco to miners had been only partially successful. Setting-Urban, suburban, and rural communities in Massachusetts, USA. Results-Organisational problems, court challenges to citations, budgetary t hreats, and political pressure all combined to reduce the frequency of enfo rcement inspections to half the intended rate. Political pressure resulted in the exclusion of older youths from compliance tests, further undermining enforcement efficacy. Conclusions-Suggestions for addressing the problems include obtaining suppo rt from the community, keeping elected and court officials informed about p lans for merchant education and law enforcement, using efficient enforcemen t protocols, setting merchant compliance goals, and advising the public and government officials about progress towards those goals, using older youth s to make purchase attempts, and testing all merchants frequently.