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In 1992, Congress enacted legislation aimed at decreasing youth access to tobacco products. The legislation, known as the Synar Regulation, requires states to enact and enforce laws prohibiting any manufacturer, retailer, or distributor from selling or distributing tobacco products to individuals under 18. In addition to enacting and enforcing a law, states must implement annual random, unannounced compliance inspections (RUIs) to determine their buy rates of tobacco products sold to youth under the age of 18. If a state's buy rate exceeds 20%, it stands to lose
40% of its Federal Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant funds, which are used to provide treatment and prevention services. For West Virginia,that 40% translates into 3.4 million dollars of treatment and prevention services.
SAPT Block Grant funds are administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)-Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). CSAP administers SAPT Block Grants to single state agencies (SSAs). In WV, the SSA is the WV Department of Health and Human Resources: Bureau for Behavior Health & Health Facilities: Division on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (DADA). However, DADA sub-contracts statewidebprevention services through the West Virginia Prevention Resource Center (WVPRC).
The WVPRC's Synar Compliance Monitor and Community Development Specialists(CDSs) work with the West Virginia State Police to conduct annual inspections year-round rather than at one time each year. The Compliance Monitor screens lists of retailers for accuracy and prepares finals lists to be used for inspections. The Monitor also trains CDSs and law enforcement on how to conduct the inspections. CDSs serve as adult coordinators who recruit and train youth. They also go out with law enforcement officers and youth conducting compliance inspections and serve as the recorder.
The WV State Health Statistics Center (HSC) is responsible for maintaining and updating the list of tobacco retailers based upon statewide screening of the list the HSC receives from the WV State Tax Department. HSC also completes data entry, analysis and the Synar Inspections Results report.
In addition to the compliance inspections implemented through the WVPRC, the WV Alcohol Beverage Control Administration (ABCA) conducts statewide educational inspections of tobacco retailers. Inspections are implemented by these different agencies on an ongoing basis in order provide consistent monitoring of retailers throughout the state.
Additional information about Synar is available at http://prevention.samhsa.gov/tobacco/.
Additional information and hard copies of these reports are available by contacting: WV Department of Health & Human Resources
Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities
Division on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
(304) 558-2276
www.wvdhhr.org/bhhf/
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