WE CARD AWARENESS MONTH
2024
BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
A PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, North Carolina law prohibits the sale of tobacco products, electronic smoking devices, and alternative nicotine products to persons under the age of 18; according to reports, underage youth vaping has risen at alarming rates in recent years; and
WHEREAS, We Card Awareness Month is an education and training effort to boost North Carolina retailers’ awareness of and participation in responsible practices to comply with federal, state, and local laws by identifying, preventing, and denying tobacco and other age-restricted product sales to minors; and
WHEREAS, 2024 marks 29 years of education and training of the national non-profit organization, The “We Card” Program Inc. – which continues to help retailers comply with age-restricted product laws and serve their communities as responsible vendors; and
WHEREAS, retailers are taking the “We Card Retailer Pledge” to identify and deny underage youth who attempt to purchase tobacco and vapor products, and to identify and deny adult purchases on behalf of those underage where there is a reasonable suspicion that an adult customer will be providing age-restricted products to an underage person; and
WHEREAS, We Card in-store training and education materials, its online training program, and its mystery shopping service, “ID Check-Up”, are available to all North Carolina retailers through We Card’s website; and
WHEREAS, North Carolina will benefit from a responsible retailing community that successfully prevents tobacco and other age-restricted product sales to minors;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim September, 2024, as “WE CARD AWARENESS MONTH” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.
________________________________________
Roy Cooper
Governor
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twentieth day of August in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.