A study published in Tobacco Control evaluates compliance with a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) policy requiring stores on military bases to set tobacco prices comparable to stores in the surrounding community. The authors conducted store audits of 23 on-base and 50 off-base retailers in Texas. They found the median price of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products was cheaper at on-base stores than off-base stores, despite DoD policy. The authors, including ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong, Shelley Golden, Kurt Ribisl, and Sara Vandegrift, suggest more specific policy language on the definition of the “local community” may make it easier to identify off-base retailers and assess policy compliance. They also recommend changing the policy definition of the off-base “prevailing price” from the mode or most common price, which is often impossible to calculate in a relatively small area, to the mean or median of local prices. Read the paper.