%0 Journal Article
%T Why should i comply? Sellers' accounts for (non-)compliance with legal age limits for alcohol sales
%A Jordy F Gosselt
%A Joris J Van Hoof
%A Menno DT De Jong
%J Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1747-597x-7-5
%X Open-ended telephone interviews were conducted with store managers selling alcohol (N = 106). Prior to the interviews, all outlets were visited by an underage mystery shopper in order to measure compliance with the legal age limits on alcohol sales. The interview results are compared against actual compliance rates.Several measures have been taken to prevent underage sales, but the compliance level is low. Furthermore, open coding resulted in 19 themes, representing both valid and invalid arguments, that vendors mentioned as relevant to their decisions of whether to comply with the law. Compliance with age limits is dependent on the knowledge of the rules and the ability and motivation to follow the rules. The ability aspect in particular seems to be problematic, but in many cases, the motivation to actively comply with the age limits is lacking.To enhance compliance, it is important to raise the awareness of the importance of age limits and to connect possible violations of the regulations to negative consequences.Reducing adolescents' consumption of risky substances such as alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs is an important challenge for national and local governments, politicians, policy makers, health professionals and academics. The age at which people start using risky products appears to be predictive of their consumption levels and related problems in later years [1]. A wide range of risk and protective factors affect the onset and escalation of adolescent risk behaviors [2-4]. Availability, in general, is considered an important predictor of adolescents' initial consumption and consumption patterns, along with the consumption-related damage they cause [5-9].Although delaying the onset of consumption is associated with positive effects, modern societies make these substances widely available. In an attempt to decrease the availability of these substances, many countries have introduced special rules in the form of age limits. Such regulations prohibit the sa
%K compliance
%K age limits
%K alcohol sales
%K availability
%K adolescents
%K vendors
%U http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/7/1/5