F

Texas Grade Card

Population Covered:
28,995,881
Tobacco 21 Since:
June 7, 2019
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The Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation evaluated all current statewide Tobacco 21 laws for their alignment with best practices that lead to effective prevention of youth initiation of tobacco and nicotine products.

Best Practice:

Health Department or Designated Agency

Texas Enforcement:

Texas designated enforcement to the Comptroller in partnership with local law enforcement agencies

Best Practice:

Before distributing any tobacco product, the tobacco retailer or the tobacco retailer’s agent or employee shall verify that the purchaser is at least 21 years of age. Each tobacco retailer or tobacco retailer’s agent or employee shall examine the purchaser’s government-issued photographic identification if the purchaser appears to be under 30 years of age.

Texas Enforcement:

ID check is required for any purchaser that appears to be under 30 years of age

Best Practice:

The primary burden for sales to underage purchasers should fall on the retailer who is profiting from the sales of the product and not the purchaser or non-management employee.

Texas Enforcement:

Penalty placed on “Person”

Best Practice:
Provide authority for the state, county, or municipality to inspect tobacco retailers for compliance with MLSA 21 and a mandated minimum number of annual compliance checks. Model recommends two per year for every tobacco retail establishment.
Texas Enforcement:

Compliance checks are random without a mandated minimum number of annual checks

Best Practice:
The designated agency shall conduct compliance checks by engaging persons between the ages of 18 and 20 to enter the tobacco retail establishment to attempt to purchase tobacco products.
Texas Enforcement:

Compliance checks are done with decoys that are younger than 21 years, but no minimum age specified

Best Practice:
A comprehensive tobacco retail license allows states and municipalities to regulate all tobacco retailers, fund enforcement programs, and create a penalty structure that suspends or revokes a license for retailers that continue to violate a MLSA 21 law.
Texas Licensing:

Texas’s statewide licensing covers cigarettes and tobacco products, but does NOT include e-cigarettes

Best Practice:
The fee for a tobacco retail sales license shall be set and used to cover the administrative cost for licensing administration, education and training, retail inspections, and unannounced compliance checks. The tobacco retail sales license fee should not exceed the cost of the regulatory program authorized beyond the statute/ordinance.
Texas Licensing:

Texas’s Tobacco Retail License fee does NOT fund enforcement program

Best Practice:
An effective licensing system requires tobacco retailers to pay an annual license fee and allows it to be periodically adjusted. Fee must be adequate to cover License administration, education/training, and enforcement. An annual fee of lower than $300 is generally inadequate to fund a licensing program.
Texas Licensing:

$180 licensing fee that renews every two years

Best Practice:

Establish a civil penalty structure for violations rather than a criminal penalty structure.

Texas Penalties:

Penalties can be either civil or criminal

Best Practice:

36 months

Texas Penalties:

Texas has a 12-month violation accrual period

Best Practice:

1st violation = $500
2nd violation = $750 and (7) day suspension
3rd violation = $1,000 and (30) day suspension
4th violation = $1000 and (3) year suspension

Texas Penalties:

1st Violation = Maximum of $500
2nd Violation = Maximum of $750
3rd Violation = Maximum of $1,000 or suspend permit for maximum of 3 days
4th Violation = Permit revoked

Best Practice:
An evidence-based, best practices tobacco MLSA 21 policy should focus penalties on the tobacco retailer who profits from the illegal sale rather than the youth who is likely addicted to the product. PUP laws may be unlikely to reduce youth smoking significantly.
Texas Penalties:

Purchase, Use, and Possession (PUP) penalties on individuals younger than 21 exist in Texas law. A violation will result in a mandatory penalty that could include an education course, $100 fine, and it is considered a criminal charge.

Best Practice:

Local governments have a critical role in reducing the deadly toll of tobacco by regulating sales and restricting retailer access to youth for to these products to prevent use and addiction.
Tobacco 21 legislation should not introduce new tobacco control preemption, nor expand existing tobacco control preemption, and instead should be used as an opportunity to assert local authority or repeal existing tobacco control preemption.

Texas Preemption:

Preemption existed in Texas and was expanded within the legislation that raised the minimum legal sales age to 21

Best Practice:

A comprehensive definition will cover all current, known tobacco and nicotine products, which include not only cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco, but also products like pipes, rolling papers, electronic smoking devices, and other related devices. A strong definition will also be broad enough to capture future products.

Texas Definitions:

Texas’s Tobacco 21 law does not include a single comprehensive definition of tobacco products, but does define products separately and regulate them within their minimum legal sales age