{
  "abstract": "In response to rising youth electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) prevalence, the USA raised the legal minimum age of sale to 21 years and required requesting identification (ID) for all buyers under age 27 years. However, state laws may not match federal laws; North Carolina (NC) only enforces the state minimum age of sale of 18 years. In 2019, NC sued JUUL Labs (‘JUUL’) for selling and marketing products to youth, misrepresenting product potency and failing to warn of the dangers of nicotine.1 In response to concerns about popularity among the youth, JUUL employees and a consultant conducted efficacy testing of an ID electronic verification (e-verification) programme for in-person transactions called Retail Access Control Standards (RACS). A JUUL-sponsored special issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior found non-compliance fell considerably among age 21+ years buyers without an ID following RACS implementation at 171 chain retail locations in three states—including NC.2 In 2021, NC reached a settlement in its lawsuit, requiring JUUL to implement e-verification systems in NC retailers selling JUUL products by 28 February 2022. The settlement required scanning IDs and automated blocking of the sale to buyers under 21 years. We sought to evaluate if there was evidence that the NC settlement restricted underage access to JUUL products compared with other e-cigarette products and if the efficacy reported in JUUL’s testing of RACS matched real-world effectiveness of the settlement’s implementation.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Health Education and Promotion, College of Health and Human Performance, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Elisabeth C Reed"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Health Education and Promotion, College of Health and Human Performance, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Joseph G L Lee"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA",
        "Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Mary Hrywna"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Amanda Y Kong"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Christopher Ackerman"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA",
        "Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Cristine D Delnevo"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Electronic verification of identification cards for JUUL product purchase attempts after final consent judgement in North Carolina versus JUUL Labs, Inc.: evidence from Pitt County, North Carolina, 2022",
  "uid": "bcc17bb1-1c7a-5c90-8ec9-49e5db8797b7"
}