National Prevention Week lands in alcohol compliance checks in St. Joseph Tuesday afternoon with fewer businesses selling to minors.

The St. Joseph Youth Alliance said each day of the week is set to talk about an issue.  Monday was tobacco awareness, Tuesday Alcohol Awareness, Wednesday is Opioids and Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness, Thursday will tackle the issue of Marijuana, Friday is the day to talk about Suicide Prevention, and Saturday will take on the promotion of mental health and wellness.

As part of the efforts surrounding alcohol awareness The St. Joseph Police Department and the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department teamed up with Youth Alliance to hold compliance checks. St. Joseph Police Department Sgt. Larry Stobbs said out of 42 businesses checked Tuesday only three places sold alcohol to a minor.

“That’s only about a 7-percent failure rate,” Stobbs said. “In 2007 when we first started doing this more than half the businesses in town sold to the kids that we sent in.”

Two crews, each consisting of four officers and a minor went out to grocery stores, convenience stores and drug stores around St. Joseph.

Crews also went out Monday for tobacco awareness and held tobacco checks.  Out of 25 businesses checked, two sold to a minor.

Thursday the issue of Marijuana use will be addressed in St. Joseph as part of the week-long initiative.  The St. Joseph Youth Alliance plans to hold a presentation at 11:30 a.m. at Grave Evangelical Church to talk about how legalization of marijuana would affect the community and workplace.

“We’re trying to make things better for the youth in our community,” Stobbs said.