Rate of selling tobacco to minors drops in Md.

The state of Maryland appears to have seen a drop in the number of retailers illegally selling tobacco to minors. The non-compliance rate has reportedly fallen to below 14 percent.

In 2014, that figure was around 20 percent and it reportedly jumped to 30 percent in 2015.

Jennifer Johnson, deputy public information officer at the Wicomico County Health Department, says the state has allocated funds to health departments to educate retailers on the importance of making sure anyone they are selling tobacco to is 18 or older.

Johnson says the Wicomico County Health Department offered calendars to retailers so they had could easily check the date and get into the habit of carding everyone.

“You can’t look at somebody and say, they look like they’re 18,” she explains. “Well, I don’t know what it is nowadays but a lot of times younger children look a lot older than what they are so the importance of making sure you card every single time, I think that’s the importance thing.”

A survey from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene finds nearly two-thirds of Maryland adults who had ever smoked a whole cigarette began as adolescents.