North Carolina is teetering on the edge of losing roughly $5.4 million in federal funds for combating the opioid epidemic and supporting substance use disorder treatment. If the state doesn’t slash youth tobacco access, it could forfeit funding. But North Carolina’s tobacco laws have made that difficult.

To receive federal block grant funding for substance use treatment and prevention, federal law says states have to annually survey a random sample of tobacco retailers and report the percentage of them that sell to people under 21 — the federal minimum tobacco sale age. If that percentage, called the retailer violation rate, exceeds 20% (with a  +/-3% margin of error), a state could face penalties, including up to a 10% cut in its grant funding.

Too few retailers check IDs when NC kids buy tobacco. That could jeopardize federal substance use treatment funds | WFAE 90.7 – Charlotte’s NPR News Source