Thank you to Waukesha County PD and Retailers

(Waukesha County, WI) – The Tobacco Free Community Partnership of Jefferson, Dodge and Waukesha Counties has finalized their tobacco compliance checks for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. With the assistance of police officers in Waukesha, Oconomowoc, New Berlin, Menomonee Falls, 115 retailers were inspected. (Retailers in Brookfield, WI were also inspected, without assistance from the police department.) In Waukesha County, 95% of retailers were compliant with the law and did NOT sell to the youth volunteers. Tobacco and nicotine sales are limited to adults over the age of 21, in a new federal law released earlier in the year.

The goal of the WI Wins program is to prevent youth tobacco and nicotine use by keeping it out of the hands of minors in the first place. We believe that through retailer education, outreach programming and opportunities, and compliance checks we can reduce the number of youth becoming addicted to nicotine, thus preventing a lifetime of potential health risks. Research shows that 80% of adult tobacco users started before the age of 18, thus retailers play a crucial role in keeping kids tobacco and nicotine free.

Holly Miller states “It is fantastic to see so many retailers not selling to youth. This is a huge win in the world of tobacco prevention and I’m proud of Waukesha County for putting youth first. As a health education teacher, I see young people struggle to make positive decisions. By removing the accessibility of these products, we can make those decisions easier.”

Retailers have access to a free resource with training materials for their employees. This can help avoid potential fines in the future.. This state-approved training includes study guides, a short quiz, and a certificate of completion that employers can keep on file. This resource can be accessed at www.witobaccocheck.org.

Thank you to the tobacco retailers in Waukesha County for diligently checking ID’s and refusing sales to minors and thank you to the police departments for providing officers to assist with compliance checks. The WI Wins program is most successful when we all work together.

For more information on this program, visit www.wiwins.org.