PRYOR — Mayes County Sheriff’s Office conducted alcohol compliance checks at liquor and convenience stores on Sept. 9.

Assisting the sheriff’s office were undercover youth and the ROCMND Area Prevention Resource Center. The checks were conducted at the stores in hopes that no one was selling alcohol or tobacco to minors.  

Forty-one establishments were checked and there were eight failures – five tobacco sales and three alcohol sales. The alcohol sales did decrease from the month before of six failures. Illegal tobacco sales saw an increase from two failures in August.  

“It shocked me of the liquor stores that sold,” said Investigator Albert McKee. “These were obviously young kids.”

ROCMND is contracted to provide these checks on a quarterly basis. The prevention center covers eight counties in northeastern Oklahoma.

“We feel this is important to our communities in which we work,” said Stacy Potter, prevention program director for ROCMND. “We want to be assured that our youth cannot buy alcohol or tobacco.”  

Compliance checks are a strategy that is used to make alcohol less accessible to youth. The checks also hold those persons who sell to minors accountable.  

One employee of an establishment told the undercover youth, “If you would have come in before last week, I would have sold to you but I don’t want another $501 ticket.”  

“This goes to show you that these checks work,” said Jennifer Hinson, preventionist from ROCMND.   

The tickets with court costs can be steep and some people found that out, being charged $501.

“The cost needs to be high enough that it makes an impact,” said Potter.  “We want to work with managers and owners so that this is not repeated again. There is no joy in giving someone a costly

ticket.”  

ROCMND provides a responsible beverage service and sales training free of charge to employees, managers, and owners of establishments that sell alcohol and beer.

“We encourage all store managers along with their employees to attend the training,” Potter said. “The message does not always get back to the employee on the importance of the law.”  

Their next beverage service and sales training is 9 a.m., Oct. 15, at ROCMND Detention Center in Vinita. RSVPs are needed due to space availability.