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I’m Jacob and I’m 16 years old and I’m Shayla and I’m also 16. We’re both youth participants in the Wisconsin Wins Program. Wisconsin Wins is a program created to help reduce youth access to tobacco through retailer education and other methods.
As Wins youth inspectors, we work with the Milwaukee Police Department, the Wisconsin African American Tobacco Prevention Network, and the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Poverty Network, to conduct unannounced compliance checks on tobacco retailers.
We’re here to tell you that it is SO easy to purchase tobacco products as a minor! The first time we went out to conduct compliance checks in Milwaukee we were so afraid that they wouldn’t sell to us. Now that we’ve done so many of them, we’re always hoping that they will do the right thing and NOT sell to us. Unfortunately, it still happens very often. Those who do sell receive a $691 fine from the police.
Over the summer in Milwaukee our team conducted 151 compliance checks and 51 retailers sold to us. That’s one in every three. This Fall we did 72 checks and were sold tobacco 22 times.
We wonder sometimes if the retailers understand what the law is for selling tobacco. This is what we understand: In 2019, a federal law raised the legal sales age of all tobacco products from 18 to 21 years old. Wisconsin and six other states’ age to purchase tobacco remains unchanged at 18. This is really confusing for the retailers and also for young people.
We also wonder if they realize what tobacco is doing to my peers. In our high school kids are already vaping. Some are really addicted. I try to talk to them because I know where tobacco addiction leads. Sickness and an early grave.
We share this story with you because our experience with the WI Wins Program helped us realize that much more can be done to help prevent young people like us and our classmates from purchasing and/or using tobacco. We’ve learned from educators that almost all adults who use tobacco started using it as teens. We also learned that if by the age of 25, a person hasn’t started smoking, they probably never will smoke.
Anything that can be done to try and help fewer young people get addicted to and exposed to tobacco should be done. Raising the state law to purchase tobacco to 21 is one step towards achieving that goal.
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