The Grey Bruce Health Unit is sending out underage secret shoppers with a mission to buy tobacco products.
The program, designed to butt-out tobacco sales to minors, sees high school students team up with Tobacco Enforcement Officers.
Program Manager Angela Newman says the students receive training, take notes, observations and even file reports.
The idea is to get students to enter stores by themselves while an enforcement officer waits outside.
If the retailer sells tobacco products to the minor, Newman says the student can even be asked to go to court.
For the program to really work she says students target stores outside of the direct area where they live.
Newman wouldn’t tell us what stores they are targeting or where, but she did say they may try the same stores more than once during their blitz.
To be sure they’re familiar with the process, Newman says students will be taking part in a training session this week.
