STING ON FOR ILLEGAL CIGARETTE SALES TO MINORS

The News-Record reports on the health department undercover operation that included a teen boy seeking to buy the tobacco products:

Maplewood stores that sell cigarettes to minors could soon be in trouble.
The municipal health department is in the midst of its annual sting operation to see who is complying with the law against selling to anyone under 19 years old, health officer Robert D. Roe said.

Roe said nine of the 10 businesses surveyed complied with the law when he sent a teenage boy into their stores over a span of a couple days three weeks ago. Roe declined to identify the store that did not comply until the municipal court case is finished. The store owner was issued a $250 fine.

“I’m hoping that the $250 fine teaches a lesson,” Township Committeewoman India R. Larrier, who is also president of the local Board of Health, said in an interview. “It’s encouraging to me that out of 10, only one failed.”

Roe said he plans to follow up with 10 more stores as part of what he calls “tobacco age of sale enforcement.”

Roe has been testing stores for more than 15 years. He said he first used the program on a test basis without issuing fines in 1995 at 10 stores. In all 10 cases, the stores sold to minors.