St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Division officers teamed with juvenile operatives this month to conduct stealth buys of alcohol and tobacco from various outlets in St. Charles Parish.

Basically, deputies teamed with children under the legal age to purchase tobacco-related products or alcohol to enter area stores in an effort to see which employees were fulfilling their legally-mandated requirement to check for proper identification.

Authorities staged the buys June 6 and made the results of the effort public through a release to media outlets June 11.

L’Observateur reported in the Saturday edition seven businesses sold alcohol and or tobacco to minors.

The story, which ran on page 5A, listed the names and addresses of offending locations and the names of those who made the illegal sales that necessitated a misdemeanor summons.

However, that is not all the news supplied by the sheriff’s office.

A note from Sheriff Greg Champagne commended the employees at the businesses who refused to sell alcohol and or cigarettes to minors. He also listed which businesses were compliant.

That list did not make it in Saturday’s news story but was something we found newsworthy.

There was not enough room to include the list of those following the law, which was significantly longer than the list of those who didn’t.

Businesses that followed the rules included St. Rose locations River Road Discount, Brothers Food Mart, St. Rose First Stop, River Bend Truck Stop and Racetrac. Destrehan locations in compliance included Big River Shell – Longview, CVS, Winn Dixie, Dollar General, Circle K and Julie Store.

In Luling, the compliance locations included Pit Stop Fuel, Luling Discount, Birdies, Valero, Super Serve and Jiff 66.

Others included Big River Shell – Carolyn and Friendly Quick Stop in New Sarpy, Big River Shell in Norco, Jiff 66 in Ama, Birdies in Hahnville, Shell U.S. 90 and Champions Exxon in Boutte, Valero and Big River Shell in Paradis and Jubilee Chevron in Des Allemands.

Underage drinking, smoking and dipping is a problem better combated when the business community does its part in preventing the products from illegally reaching the hands of minors.

Those who stray from the law and sell to minors deserve punishment, but those who follow the rules, ask for IDs and deal with area children in a responsible way deserve recognition.

Of the 30-plus stores involved, it was positive to see only seven were cited for violations.

Hats off to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Division for conducting such a widespread parish check-up, and special thanks goes to leadership for including the list of those who followed the rules to go along with those who did not.

It is always a good thing when the positive news gets the attention the negative news seems to sometimes command.