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During a recent tobacco enforcement “sting” in Delta County, slightly more than 90 percent of Delta County businesses passed with flying colors — refusing to sell cigarettes or chewing tobacco without proper identification.

On July 1, a state law goes into effect requiring employees to card anyone who appears to be under the age of 30.
The new legislation clarifies previous regulations which stated that anyone who “knowingly” sells tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 could be held criminally liable.
According to Larry Mullen, a criminal investigator with the state liquor/tobacco enforcement unit, a Palisade woman who was cited for unlawfully selling tobacco to a minor claimed she did not do so “knowingly” because she never asked the customer for identification.
The employee who violates the law can be fined for the sale, as well as the failure to ask for ID, Mullen said.
Mullen was a speaker at a Delta County Tobacco Education Coalition meeting on Friday, June 20.
Earlier in the meeting, Karen O’Brien, tobacco education coordinator for Delta County, gave an overview of the many incentives offered to teens, new moms and adults who want to quit smoking.
“Those are the carrots,” Mullen said. “My job is the stick side.”
During the course of his career with the Colorado Department of Revenue, the former cop has visited virtually every store on the Western Slope which sells tobacco products. He uses teens under the legal age of 18 as decoys in his “sting” operations. In Delta County, he sent females into the stores to try to purchase cigarettes.
“Delta County did much better than I expected,” he said, adding that females tend to be turned down more than males.
As a state, Colorado has to demonstrate that 80 percent of the time underage purchases of tobacco products are denied. The requirement stems from the tobacco litigation which resulted in billions of dollars targeted for tobacco education and cessation. The states involved in the settlement, including Colorado, must demonstrate that a significant portion of the settlement funds are being used to attack the public health problem posed by tobacco use.
Mullen says his enforcement team visits every store in Delta County at least once year, and returns in 90 days to re-check violators.
According to the Healthy Kids survey conducted in Delta County last fall, 50 percent of middle and high schoolers find it’s pretty easy to purchase tobacco.