An Arizona vape shop will be required to pay nearly half-a-million dollars after Attorney General Kris Mayes sued the business for selling tobacco products to minors.
Mayes filed a civil complaint against the Pro Source vape shops in July, saying, during undercover operations, multiple 16- and 17-year-olds were able to purchase e-cigarettes and cartridges from the shops without being asked to show their ID. The company’s three Arizona locations had a 67% failure rate during these inspections. The average failure rate among Arizona tobacco retailers is 13%, the Attorney General’s Office said.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge in December issued a judgment that will require the shops to pay $460,000 in restitution, civil penalties and attorneys’ fees. Pro Source shops will also be required to adopt strict age-verification policies. And the shops will be prohibited from selling products resembling candy or using advertising that specifically appeals to minors.
“More than 95% of adult tobacco users started before the legal age, and we know how quickly nicotine addiction can take hold,” Mayes said in a press release. “Retailers that sell these products have a legal and moral responsibility to make sure they are not putting Arizona’s youth at risk.”
Another lawsuit against a second retailer targeted during the same July crackdown is still ongoing.
Arizona last year passed a law to raise the age to buy or possess tobacco products from 18 to 21, which is also the federal age.
-
The Federal Trade Commission says Arizonans lost roughly $337 million to fraud in 2024. A new imposter scam targets the family members of those arrested and put in jail. -
Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has died. He was 59 years old. The Show talks with Joe Kanefield, a partner at the law firm Snell and Wilmer. He served as chief of staff in the Attorney General’s Office. -
Indigenous peoples across the U.S. have been swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants and an Arizona tribe is taking steps to safeguard its membership. -
A study is providing new insight on the traumas and experiences of incarcerated women at the Estrella Jail. The report came from a partnership between ASU and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. -
If you go to jail, you probably expect to spend a whole lot of time being told what to do. For a group of inmates at the Pinal County Adult Detention Center in Florence, they got the chance to run their pod themselves. And it was all filmed for Netflix.
