COLUMBIA — Business has started to get more difficult for Essam Kablaoui, and it’s only going to get more hectic once classes resume at the University of South Carolina near the tobacco shop he manages in the Five Points district.
“When school starts back up, it’s going to be tough for us to ID every single person,” he said. “But we’re going to be on our high horse about it.”
Two weeks after President Donald Trump signed legislation barring retailers from selling tobacco products and e-cigarettes to people under 21, South Carolina is still absorbing the abrupt change to the state’s smoking habit.
Support for the campaign to raise the age, dubbed Tobacco 21, was bipartisan and included backing from industry leaders. But trade groups worry about its sudden implementation.
“When the federal legislation was signed into law Dec. 20, retailers were under the impression there would be a six-month transition period before the change became effective,” said Rebecca Leach, executive director of the S.C. Retail Association.
Enforcement tool
The White House says the move will combat use of tobacco goods among youth. Last year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 4 million middle and high school students used e-cigarettes.
Cigarettes remain the country’s leading cause of preventable death, with the CDC blaming them for 480,000 deaths a year. Nationwide, about 34 million people smoke, and almost 8 percent are between the ages of 18 and 24.
Trump told reporters Wednesday he’d like even further regulations, including a temporary ban on the sale of flavored products.
Public health advocates, including Rebecca Jacobson, executive director of the nonprofit SmokefreeSC, said there’s a loophole, since officials are leaving menthol-flavored products on the market.
“Raising the tobacco purchase age to 21 is a really important step because what that does is, if retailers are actually enforcing that, it gets purchasing out of high school,” Jacobson said. The age increase “is a very positive step in general, but it is not sufficient to deal with the teen vaping epidemic.”
Minor tax hit
The financial impact to South Carolina, a taxing and tobacco-growing state, is expected to be minimal, state budget forecasters say.
“Yes, there could be some small decline in this tax source, but growth in sales and income tax could more than offset this amount,” said Frank Rainwater, director of the S.C. Office of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs. “I doubt this will have any impact on the $10 billion general fund.”
South Carolina has no tax on e-cigarettes, but lawmakers last increased the cigarette levy in 2010, following a decade-long push and two vetoes from then-Gov. Mark Sanford.
The 50-cents-per-pack hike to 57 cents marked the first such increase in 33 years and still ranked near the bottom nationally at 44th, according to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, an independent policy group.
Other tobacco products — such as pipe, chewing and roll-your-own tobacco — are taxed at 5 percent of the manufacturer’s price.
In 2018, South Carolina farmers harvested 12,300 acres of tobacco, yielding almost $44 million worth of production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Over the past five years, tobacco taxes have brought in between $25 million and $28 million annually to state coffers. Collections were predicted to rise slightly next fiscal year to $28.7 million. That’s down from the height of $160 million in the year after legislators hiked the cigarette tax.
By comparison, taxes on beer and wine are expected to bring in four times that much.
The vaping concern
With the rise of vaping and e-cigarette use among young people, states need to take even more aggressive steps to keep the products out of their hands, said Matthew Myers, president of the Washington-based nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
“States who don’t take further action thinking that the problem is solved by raising the age will be making a tragic mistake,” Myers said.
Altria Group, one of the nation’s largest tobacco companies, said on its website the new age restriction was welcomed.
According to Myers’ organization, which pushes to reduce tobacco use, 10 percent of all South Carolina high school students — nearly 26,000 in all — smoke tobacco, while 12 percent use vaping products.
Myers said laws like increasing taxes on tobacco products or banning the sale of flavored products would enhance efforts at keeping them out of the hands of minors.
While the financial hit to South Carolina could be trivial, several trade groups have aired concerns over its immediate implementation.
Enforcement questions
Last week, representatives from five major lobbyists said a sudden prohibition will create hardships not only for consumers but also vendors, who need to retrain employees or get new signs.
“Consumer education is desperately needed to avoid angry confrontations in stores across the nation,” the group wrote Dec. 27 to Mitch Zeller, who oversees the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
The message was signed by the National Association of Convenience Stores, National Grocers Association, National Association of Truckstop Operators, Petroleum Marketers Association of American and Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America.
Leach, of the S.C. Retail Association, agreed.
“It takes time to update point-of-sale systems, train employees, get the proper We Card Signs and educate customers about this new requirement,” she said.
“It was an added challenge this change was unexpectedly made effective over the holidays, but our retailers are diligently working to comply,” she said.
Charleston Police Department spokesman Charles Francis said the law could result in an uptick of complaints.
“An educational piece to the public will be important to relay that this age restriction is changing from 18 to 21,” Francis said.
Maria Yturria, a spokeswoman for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, said her agency isn’t anticipating any impact from the change.
Kablaoui said his store won’t take any chances in screening people before making a sale.
“Better safe than sorry,” he said. “This is our livelihood. This is how we make our money.”
Sale of tobacco to a minor is a misdemeanor, with fines of between $200 and $500, and may require completion of the state’s tobacco enforcement education program.
