Campaign targets illegal sales

State officials and retailers across North Carolina hope to curtail the sale of tobacco to minors with a new campaign emphasizing the inspection of driver’s licenses.

Known as the Red Flag campaign, the initiative is designed to help retailers enforce laws regarding the sale of tobacco by helping them understand the color-coded system for licenses.

“The Red Flag campaign is a public awareness effort to educate store clerks that a red border on a driver’s license means that the person is too young to purchase cigarettes,” said Mark Ezzell, community outreach coordinator for the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund. Health and Wellness is one of the groups spearheading the campaign.

On the North Carolina driver’s license, a red border denotes that the possessor is under the age of 18. Drivers under the age of 21 receive a license with a yellow border, while the licenses of those over 21 are marked by green borders.

Although this policy has been in place for years, many North Carolinians still do not understand the color-coded system.

John Simmons, deputy director for operations at the N.C. Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement, said the state conducted a survey to see if residents were familiar with the color-coded licensing.

Only 30 percent of those surveyed understood the meanings of the border colors, he said.

The new campaign should improve the public’s understanding of the license system, especially among retailers, Simmons added.

“It is an additional means to get the word out,” Simmons said. “We expect it to have a very significant impact.”

But some store managers are more skeptical about the merits of the new campaign.

Craig Robbins, a clerk at University Shell gas station on Hillsborough Road in Durham, said his store already takes the necessary measures to prevent the sale of tobacco to minors.

The store displays “We Card” signs, and employees are trained to view patrons’ identification before selling them tobacco products, he said.

Robbins said he doubts that the Red Flag initiative will play a major role in reducing teenagers’ access to tobacco.

“I don’t think that it’s going to do much,” he said.

Robbins noted that minors can always have their 18-year-old friends purchase cigarettes for them and that fake IDs often look identical to real driver’s licenses.

But some retailers do see value in the campaign. The N.C. Retail Merchants Association is one of the groups supporting the initiative.

President Fran Preston said the association endorsed the campaign because it will train sales associates to operate more in accordance with the law.

“I think that most of the chains and many of the independents will be happy to receive the information,” she said.

Many state agencies are just as optimistic.

The campaign receives its funding from the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, a state agency created in the wake of the national tobacco settlement and led by Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

In the fight against underage smoking, the Red Flag campaign will serve as a supplement to the compliance checks of tobacco laws already financed by the trust fund, Ezzell said.

“It’s just part of a comprehensive effort by the Health and Wellness Trust Fund to promote tobacco-use prevention among teens.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.