On June 21, the Cottage Grove City Council addressed a tobacco compliance check violation by local merchant Cottage Grove Tobacco, LLC (CG Tobacco & Vape), located at 6990 80^th St. S. During one of the Public Safety Department’s semi-annual citywide compliance checks for local businesses selling age-restricted products like tobacco and alcohol, an employee at CG Tobacco & Vape sold a tobacco product to an underage decoy customer on May 23.

Working with local police, the 19-year-old decoy entered the business at approximately 3:55 p.m. and requested a tin of Grizzly Wintergreen chewing tobacco. The decoy was not asked for their identification or their age, and the purchase was completed. After the sale, the decoy turned the tobacco product over to police, who then went back to the establishment. The decoy then pointed out the employee who made the sale.

The employee, identified as Mark Nelson, was informed of the violation by police, as was the business owner, Mohammed Hasan. Nelson admitted to making the sale, but said that he thought he recognized the decoy as a regular customer who would have previously been carded to prove their age, and therefore didn’t ask for identification during the transaction.

Speaking to the council, Cottage Grove Deputy Director of Public Safety Greg Rinzel outlined the process the department uses during compliance checks. The volunteer decoys are over 18, but under the age of 21. They are instructed to arrive in everyday clothing, not change their normal appearance in any way, state their true age and produce their actual ID if asked, and are not allowed to lie about who they are during a compliance transaction.

Minnesota driver’s licenses are visually different for those under 21, using a vertical layout instead of the standard horizontal layout used for those 21 and over. The purpose is to make it easy for people to identify someone as underage without looking at the details listed on the ID. In this case, no ID was requested by the employee, so this safeguard went unnoticed. Rinzel said that this was the only violation they encountered in the city during the most recent compliance check, for tobacco as well as alcohol.

CG Tobacco & Vape is in its second year of business in Cottage Grove and this is its first violation, having passed previous checks in 2022. The fine for a first compliance violation within a 36-month period for a business in Cottage Grove is $300. The business owner, Hasan, was invited to the city council meeting to discuss or dispute the violation but did not attend. Taking the owner’s absence as an admission of fault, the fine was enforced by the council.