Convenience stores are seeing a growing problem with underage purchases and attempted purchases of age-restricted products -- namely alcohol and cigarettes.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department and the Missouri Division of Liquor Control regularly monitor liquor retailers compliance with the law. During an operation conducted last fall, seven of 11 different Cape Girardeau stores surveyed sold liquor to an undercover minor working with officers.

Rhodes 101 Stop was among those who erred, but the company intends to respond with a major change in processing sales, said spokesman Jeffrey Maurer. The company is in the planning stages of a new "We Card" program.

"Despite our support for these laws, and our genuine intent to comply, our challenge lies in two particular areas of judgment on the part of our employees," Maurer said.

Currently, employees must determine whether a patron appears to be less than 30 years old, he said. If so, a state-issued picture ID is required to verify age. The second determination is whether the ID shows a clear image of the individual. Both decisions must be made quickly, with an anxious customer, and many times additional customers forming a line behind, Maurer said.

"These are definitely not excuses for non-compliance, but these circumstances do make this rather subjective in nature and difficult to train," he said.

To combat this, Rhodes 101 is developing a plan to require state-issued picture IDs from all customers buying alcohol or cigarettes. When employees scan in a product, a computer prompt asks them to key in the customer's birth date into the cash register, which calculates the age and determines whether the person is old enough to buy. Then the only judgment remaining is whether the ID truly represents the customer.

There may be some financial risks with the new program, Maurer said. Older customers may be annoyed and choose to shop elsewhere.

Retailers can be scapegoats in the war against underage drinking, Maurer said.

"The retailer is more often the target because we're easier to find than the underage drinkers," he said. "But by seeking to obtain the alcohol, they're provoking someone else to commit a crime. I feel like the retailer is the victim at that point."

Maurer said the courts could make a bigger a difference if harsher punishments were dispensed.

Judges can assess a fine up to $1,000 from a minor convicted of alcohol possession, but they rarely do for first-time offenders. Retailers cited for supplying alcohol to a minor typically pay a $750 fine to avoid losing their liquor licenses for three days, he said.

"That part just doesn't make sense to me," Maurer said. "That's three times as much as a minor is usually required to pay. To do it at such disparity is odd."

Since 1998, the Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney's office has prosecuted 421 cases of alcohol possession by a minor.

"A typical plea we recommend is a suspended imposition of sentence, resulting in probation," Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said. "We let the defense choose which they prefer."

If the defendant completes probation, the record is closed. But if the defendant breaks the law again, probation can be revoked and a judge can order a defendant to a year in jail. Some defendants plead guilty and pay the fine, choosing a conviction over probation.

Prosecutors have no standard approach for defendants supplying alcohol to minors, Swingle said.

"The circumstances can differ so greatly from case to case," Swingle said. "You can have one kid giving another one a six pack, or the owner of a store knowingly selling liquor to a minor, or the owner being tricked into a sale by a minor. We look at each case on its facts before deciding what to do."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160