The Jackson County Sheriff's Office said Thursday it would continue to crack down on underage alcohol and vape sales in the wake of several recent arrests in the region.
In a press release posted on the agency's Facebook page, Sheriff Janis Mangum said she had received numerous complaints of underage alcohol parties and stores selling alcohol and vapes to underage people since stepping into her role in 2013.
Mangum said the agency has always taken an aggressive stance on underage drinking.
"Our Judge and Solicitor started some programs for a pretrial diversion to order these young people to attend classes, again in an attempt to help them overcome the bad choices they were making when it came to underage drinking," Mangum said in the release.
But Mangum said the Jackson County Sheriff's Office has partnered with the ATF over the past few years to execute operations at several stores in the county to see if they would sell alcohol or vapes to minors.
"In September 2020 the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office CID division conducted an operation on a store in the Hoschton area," Mangum said. "During this operation, we were able to make three buys of alcohol, on separate occasions, with an underage person. An arrest was made on the person who sold this alcohol on these dates. On the last buy operation, we were able to also purchase a vape. In March of 2021, the offender went to State Court and received a jail sentence, along with several years’ probation."
Mangum said a similar incident happened at a Jefferson store in August 2021. Agents were able to make three purchases, leading to two arrests. The two suspects were sentenced Monday to some jail time along with probation.
Mangum said they have also made arrests at stores in South Jackson County and on Highway 15.
"It infuriates me that these store owners/workers don’t care about the safety and wellbeing of our young people and only seem to care about the money they can make off of them selling items that are illegal to sell to minors," Mangum said. "So we will continue to work these operations in an attempt to stop the sale of alcohol and vapes to our young people."
Anyone with information on illegal alcohol or vape sales in Jackson County is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office's anonymous tip line at 706-367-3784.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2022/8/1125378/jackson-county-authorities-continue-crackdown-on-underage-alcohol-vape-sales