INDIANAPOLIS — It’s now a federal law that you must be 21 or older to legally buy tobacco.

Joe Lackey with the Indiana Grocery and Convenience Store Association said his organization has supported the law from its conception. However, he said the Food and Drug Administration, who is charged with enforcing the law, has skipped several steps in implementing the law.

“They have to determine all the penalties and all the language that’s there,” Lackey said. “It gives the FDA 180 days to implement tobacco rule 21.”

Lackey said this implementation period is honored in nearly every piece of legislation that runs through the FDA. But, the FDA has posted on their website that the new law has been implemented “immediately”, well within the 180 days that is normally followed.

Lackey said this is catching many store owners in Indiana off guard with employees not properly trained on the new law and also customers not being aware of the sudden change.

“It’s going to be mass confusion,” he said. “We’re looking at our clerks taking a lot of abuse because people are not going to take that very well: being told ‘sorry you’re not 21 we can’t let you buy’.”

In spite of the swiftness with which the law has been implemented by the FDA, Lackey said store owners within his association will follow the law and not ask for a temporary stay so that they can have more time to get familiar.

But, he said the FDA should respect that 180 days for future legislation.

 

Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay