St. Lucie County Sheriff Mascara announces results of undercover operation to check compliance with state laws prohibiting sale of alcohol, tobacco and liquid nicotine to under aged minors.
results of undercover operation to check compliance with state laws
A St. Lucie County undercover operation throughout the weekend showed that 16 percent of stores failed to comply with state law prohibiting the sale of alcohol to those under 21 and 25 percent of stores failed to comply with state law prohibiting the sale of tobacco and liquid nicotine to those under 18, according to St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara.
According to the Sheriff , 55 attempts to purchase alcohol resulted in nine locations selling to children as young as fifteen years old. The overall non-compliance rate for alcohol sales (restaurants, bars, convenience, grocery and liquor stores) for this operation was 16 percent. Targeting tobacco sellers and Vapor shops that sell liquid nicotine, 24 attempts to purchase resulted in six locations selling to children. The overall non-compliance rate for tobacco/e-liquid sales for this operation was 25 percent.
School Resource Deputies carefully supervised under-age St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Explorer volunteers who tested store clerks by trying to purchase the prohibited products without being ordered to show proof that they were above the legal age, Sheriff Mascara said.
According to the Sheriff, the operation targeted convenience stores, vapor shops, gas stations, drug stores, bars and restaurants that sell alcohol, liquid nicotine (e-juice) and synthetic drugs.
“There is no doubt that these nicotine-delivery devices and liquid nicotine products are deliberately marketed to young people,” Sheriff Mascara said. “They are sold in flavors that target youngsters in flavors such as ‘banana split,’ ‘cotton candy, ‘kool-aid,’ ‘gummy bears’ and ‘skittles’ or with names found in popular cartoon characters.”
Here are the facts about the harmful effects of tobacco, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.
Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including an estimated 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.
On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
If smoking persists at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are projected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.
The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on cigarette advertising and promotions. In 2012, $9.6 billion was spent on tobacco advertising. Almost $26 million was spent every day in 2012.
Tobacco use costs the United States billions of dollars each year. More than $289 billion in costs every year includes at least $133 billion in direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in lost productivity. There is also the cost of $5.6 billion a year (2006 data) in lost productivity from exposure to secondhand smoke.
