In a lawsuit filed Monday, Mayes says that two Valley smoke shops — New York Smoke Shop in Chandler and Pro Source Shops, which has three Valley locations — regularly violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by selling nicotine and tobacco products to customers younger than 18. The shops also often failed to ask for an ID or post signage that an ID is legally required for purchase.
The smoke shops targeted in Mayes’ lawsuit flaunted the age requirement so often, she wants to shut them down.
“We’re seeking to dissolve their companies,” Mayes said. “We are seeking what is essentially the business version of the death penalty.”
Mayes has already targeted smoke shops that sell what she says are illegal products made with hemp-based THC. Her office has declined to enforce that ban because of ongoing litigation, though a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled last month that she likely had the authority to enforce bans on hemp-based THC products sold outside of dispensaries.
Vapes are legal to sell in smoke shops, but not to minors. In Arizona, you must be at least 18 to buy tobacco and nicotine products. Starting in late September, that age limit will increase to 21 to match federal law. Vaping addiction among teens has been a persistent issue for years. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Food and Drug Administration could limit how certain vapes and vape flavors are marketed because they could appeal to kids.
New York Smoke Shop hung up when Phoenix New Times called. The owner of Pro Source Shops, Tim Kell, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Isabella Gutierrez (right) is one of roughly 100 volunteers who help state authorities catch smoke shops that sell to minors.
Morgan Fischer
Baby narcs on patrol
How did Mayes know the shops play so fast and loose with the law? By using what is perhaps best described as a small army of volunteer baby narcs.Since 2002, the attorney general’s office and the Arizona Department of Health Services have run a tobacco Counter Strike program that deploys underage volunteers to attempt stealth purchases at smoke shops. While the number of volunteers fluctuates year to year, Mayes has around 100 teens on the vape squad whom she can mobilize to infiltrate smoke shops and nab anyone selling nicotine beyond the bounds of the law.
Isabella Gutierrez, who was not involved in busting the two shops Mayes is now suing, is one such volunteer. For the past three years, the 19-year-old has walked into hundreds of smoke shops and big box stores to purchase nicotine and tobacco products. She’s popped into roughly 20 Tucson-area smoke shops a day to see if they’ll sell her products she isn’t — or, until recently, wasn’t — legally allowed to buy. Her brother has sometimes accompanied her, and an adult “special investigator” in uniform always waits in the car.
Gutierrez, who spoke at Mayes’ press conference Tuesday, told New Times that she’s been sold products “many times.” After the illegal sale occurs, the retailer may be given a citation that carries a potential fine of $300. If a smoke shop racks up more than a couple of these violations, the authorities can bring down the hammer.
That seems to be the case for the two shops Mayes is now suing. Last year, Mayes’ baby narcs conducted nearly 2,000 inspections of Arizona’s nicotine retailers, according to her office. Businesses sold tobacco or nicotine products to minors 13% of the time, leading to around 240 business citations and around another 240 to individual clerks.
The businesses that Mayes is suing bucked that trend. In the past year, New York Smoke Shop sold to the youth volunteers 83% of the time, Mayes said, while Pro Source sold to them 67% of the time. In one instance at the New York Smoke Shop, a cashier asked one of the secret shoppers if he was 21. The teen replied that he was 16. Nonetheless, “he was still permitted to purchase a nicotine product,” Mayes said. “It is unacceptable that they continue to skirt the law in Arizona.”
Mayes hopes the lawsuits rattle tobacco retailers. “Let this be a warning to the vape shops operating in Arizona,” she said. “Do not sell to children.”
If you do, that kid might be a cop.
