Agency conducts tobacco sting operations

By John Grant Emeigh of The Montana Standard - 07/01/2006

The state has been working with a special agency that’s spent the past several years trying to nip underage smoking in the butt.

Laura Holmlund of Havre Encourages Long-range Prevention, or HELP, said her nonprofit helps the state keep an eye on the selling of tobacco to minors.

Members of HELP have organized little “sting operations” to bust clerks throughout the state who sell to minors. This group is contracted by the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Holmlund said three Butte businesses were caught selling tobacco to minors during surprise inspections this year. She said 30 more businesses will be inspected.

The sting is simple. A person under 18 goes into a business and attempts to purchase a tobacco product. An adult agent — usually an off-duty or retired police officer — watches the transaction and reports it to HELP.

Under state law, the clerk is fined for underage tobacco purchases, not the business owner. Holmlund said these violations are civil matters and not criminal. Clerks are fined $25 for each violation, and the money goes to HELP’s tobacco education fund.

She said inspections are conducted at random.

“A business can go years and years without being inspected or can have as many as three inspections in one year,” Holmlund said.

See STING, Page A7 She said some business owners believe they are being harassed.

A business owner can be fined $500 if five violations at one store in three years are noted. Holmlund said no business has ever had that many violations in a three-year period.

As a condition of receiving federal substance abuse block grant funds, federal law requires the state show 80 percent of its businesses comply with underage smoking laws. Holmlund said the state receives more than $6 million a year in these grants.

HELP conducts about 1,200 inspections throughout the state in one year.

The group also conduct “surveys” at local businesses that are similar to the inspections, except violators are only given a warning rather than a fine.

The three employees fined in the Butte inspections worked for Diamond Jim’s, Dotty’s Casino and Maloney’s Bar.

— Reporter John Grant Emeigh may be reached via e-mail at john.emeigh@lee.net or by telephone, 496-5511