The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office recently announced it will be taking part in a statewide initiative to curb widespread underage tobacco and vaping use.

Sheriff Chad Leonard says they are now part of the “I-PLEDGE” program through the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, and the purpose is to educate retailers on tobacco laws. Leonard says his office will conduct occasional sting operations to make sure locations that sell tobacco and related products are in compliance, though he emphasizes that citations are not the intent of the initiative. “Basically it is a tobacco compliance check program that we’ve agreed to help with. Basically we will go around to all the retailers and stuff, and the idea isn’t to jam anybody up or get anybody in trouble, but it’s a lot of education stuff here. And it’s to make retailers do a better job at ID-ing our young people and keeping tobacco products and the vaping products and all those things out of our minors’ hands.”

Leonard points out, retailers should welcome this program, particularly because it involves free education on how to properly enforce tobacco and alcohol age restrictions. To learn more about this and other topics involving the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.