Iowa is at risk of losing $5 million in federal money because teen-agers illegally purchase tobacco.

According to the Synar Amendment, passed by Congress in the early 1990s, states must meet certain levels of compliance when it comes to selling tobacco to minors. A state’s non-compliance rate should be 25 percent, which means one in four minors illegally purchases cigarettes.

Iowa’s non-compliance rate is at 36 percent, said Janet Zwick, director of the substance abuse and health promotion division of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Because Iowa’s rate is so high, the federal government will take away $5 million of the $24 million spent annually in Iowa on substance abuse treatment and prevention, Zwick said.

The money was supposed to be withdrawn in July, but a series of postponements pushed the date back to September, Zwick said. Taking away $5 million would be a major blow to prevention and treatment facilities, she said.

“It does seem like a catch-22,” Zwick said. “[There are] 90,000 citizens in the state of Iowa who aren’t going to receive prevention services, and about another 10,000 aren’t going to receive treatment.”

From 1995 to 1997, Iowa’s non-compliance rate dropped from 50 percent to 27 percent. The 1998 rate jumped back up to 36 percent, an increase that Zwick said is unexplainable.

Despite efforts to lower the non-compliance rate, Iowa minors are finding it easier to get their hands on cigarettes.

Eighteen percent of Iowa’s ninth through 12th graders use tobacco more than 20 days a month, according to a 1997 survey from the Iowa Department of Public Health. The national average is 16.7 percent.

Matt Waltz, sophomore in English from Kelley, had no trouble getting cigarettes when he started smoking at age 16.

“I think it’s wrong, but then again at the time I would have gotten them anyway,” Waltz said.

Riley Kurth, freshman in mechanical engineering, was 17 when he began smoking. Kurth, who is from Logan, said that where there’s a will to smoke, there’s a way to get Cigarettes.

“You can buy them if you find the right people,” he said. “Everybody gets checked for beer, but no one gets checked for cigarettes.”

Tom Gard, store director for the west Ames Hy-Vee, 3800 W. Lincoln Way, said a stronger emphasis has been put on minimizing the selling of tobacco to minors in the past four or five years. The store has enhanced employee training, and more signs are being posted to remind clerks to ask for identification.

“There has always been a strong emphasis on alcohol, but the emphasis on tobacco has been stepped up,” he said.

Gard tells his employees to ask for identification from anyone purchasing alcohol or tobacco who looks younger than 27.