Synar Regulation Implementation:
FY 97 State Compliance
Section I: Program Summary
February 1998
The Requirements of the Synar Legislation and Regulation
In July 1992, Congress enacted the ADAMHA Reorganization Act (P.L. 102-321),
which included an amendment (Section 1926) aimed at decreasing access to tobacco
products among individuals under age 18. Named for its sponsor, Congressman Mike
Synar of Oklahoma, the Synar Legislation, reprinted in the appendix, requires
States to enact and enforce laws prohibiting any manufacturer, retailer, or
distributor from selling or distributing tobacco products to individuals under
the age of 18. The legislation further requires States to conduct random,
unannounced inspections of tobacco outlets and report these findings annually to
the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This report
must also include that year's enforcement activities. While the immediate goal
of the legislation is to reduce the number of successful illegal purchases by
minors, HHS's ultimate goal is to eliminate both illegal tobacco sales and
tobacco use by minors.
To clarify the Synar Legislation, SAMHSA issued the Synar Regulation in January
1996. The Synar Regulation requires that each State's random, unannounced
inspections employ a valid probability sample of all tobacco vendors in the
State. In other words, these retailer compliance checks must be conducted in
such a way as to be generalizable to the entire State. Each State's annual
Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant application must
also contain a strategy and suggested timeframe for achieving an inspection
failure rate of 20 percent or less of outlets accessible to minors. Each State
then finalizes with SAMHSA a baseline rate and negotiates a set of interim
targets for achieving the goal of 20-percent-maximum inspection failure rate,
based on the results of its random sampling of tobacco outlets.
In addition to the 50 States and the District of Columbia, 8 other Federal
jurisdictions are required to comply with the Synar Legislation and Regulation.
They are American Samoa, Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of
Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of
Palau, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
A State or jurisdiction not in compliance with the legislation may lose a
portion of its Federal SAPT block grant funds in accordance with the schedule
provided in the law and further clarified in the Synar Regulation (see table A1
in the appendix to this report).
Successful implementation of the Synar Legislation and Regulation is important
for several reasons. First, it is expected to reduce youth access to tobacco
products, thereby reducing youth tobacco use and facilitating the reduction of
both current and future health problems among adolescents. Second, the public
supports measures to prevent the use of tobacco by young people and,
specifically, efforts to discourage tobacco sales to minors (HHS, 1994).
Finally, successfully reducing the failure rates on random, unannounced
inspections is important to the States so that they continue to receive their
full SAPT Block Grant funding. Successful implementation of the Synar Regulation
will also help enhance retailer compliance with the FDA's rule mandating that
tobacco retailers not sell tobacco to anyone under age 18 and that they require
a picture identification card from anyone under age 27 who attempts to purchase
tobacco.
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