At the request of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, deputies and volunteer posse revisited whether local retailers are upholding their end of the law by refusing to sell tobacco products to minors.
Using underage Sheriff’s volunteer Explorers, several teenagers went into convenience stores throughout the valley Friday night attempting to buy tobacco products ranging from cigarettes to chew to the increasingly popular vapor less retail outlets, all while under the guidance and in full view of a Sheriff’s deputy or Sheriff’s posse volunteer.
Should the store clerk fail to follow the law by checking the underage buyer’s ID, that clerk will be arrested. This is not the first time Arpaio has tested the intentions of local retailers.
He has conducted similar operations as this in 1997, 2003 and in lastly in 2007 in what the Sheriff called, “Operation Butt-Out.” The Sheriff’s previous operations concentrated largely on convenience stores.
Since 2007, though, a new kind of tobacco business has cropped up. Businesses now selling ‘vapor less’ products will be subject to inspection tonight as well, since sales of vapor less products to underage persons is illegal in Arizona
“Each operation in the past has shown that retailers are not taking this issue as seriously as they should,” Arpaio says. “Identifications are not asked for and sales to minors are routinely made,” he says. “The law is on the books for good reason and everyone should be diligent in following it.” The law Arpaio is referencing is ARS 13-3622, furnishing of tobacco products to minors.
In the past operations where thousands of attempted buys were made, results showed that 27 to 30 percent of attempted purchases resulted in illegal sales to minors. The biggest offenders, the Sheriff says, tended to be the independently owned retail convenient stores but there were violations noted at some of the major chain stores as well.
Arpaio says the operation acts as a community intervention to not only reduce crime but has a secondary motive – to improve overall quality of life.
“These Butt-OUT operations serve as reminder to all of us that selling tobacco products to kids is unlawful. Tobacco use, in of itself is bad enough, but it hits kids the hardest.”
The valley wide BUTT-OUT operation utilized about 2 deputies, 33 volunteers. Each team will make at least ten buy attempts throughout the evening at retail locations throughout the valley.