The incidents of Vilas county retailers selling tobacco products to underage persons has risen, according a local health professional.
Vilas County is part of the Northwoods Tobacco-Free Coalition and Tammi Boers from Vilas County Health Department says spot checks of retailers found the illegal sales rising...
"....in 2015, Vilas county had 22.86 percent of our retailers sell to minors. That increased from 2014 which was at 13.5 percent..."
She says they work to educate retailers about how to do proper ID checks...
"....the goal of the Wisconsin Wins program is so there wouldn't be any sales to minors. If there are sales to minors then we do an education. The education is then to show how to read the ID correctly...."
Boers says another trend is selling other tobacco products to young people.Those products include chewing tobacco, snus, cigars, cigarillos and also electronic cigarettes and hookah products to minors. The fines to local retailers can be up to $1,000 and the loss of the tobacco license.
The Northwoods Tobacco-Free Coalition includes Florence, Forest, Lincoln,Price, Oneida and Vilas counties.
