Two women admit to selling THC vape products to Martin County students

By Roberta Cantrell
BSN Editor

Two Martin County women were charged on Jan. 16, after a search warrant was executed and are accused of being in connection with a Martin County High School student being hospitalized.

Thelma Goforth and Linda G. Slone, both of Inez, were arrested by the MC school officer following an investigation in which both women admitted selling THC vape products to the minors from Smokin Hott Novelties & More without checking their ID’s.

The search warrant was prompted for the business after MC Schools police department investigated multiple incidents where school students were cited for bringing THC vapes onto school grounds.

Court documents stated in each of these cases, both juvenile students along with others stated that they had directly purchased the THC products from Thelma Goforth and Linda Slone at that business.

According to police, after the search, both Goforth and Slone requested police to transport them to the SRO Sheriff’s Resource Officer’s Office of MCHS to conduct interviews.

Goforth and Slone also provided recorded statements to police while they were interviewed, admitting that they had knowingly been selling THC products to minors.

Court documents stated that Goforth and Slone had admitted that they had knowingly sold to 50 or more minors.

The two also stated that they had become comfortable making the extra money they were getting by selling to juveniles.

Slone stated she would ask juvenile customers to “tell their friends about their operation”, and use a punch card system as a means of purchasing products. Goforth stated that she told minors, “Don’t be telling everybody, I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine.”

Both women also admitted to police that they would sometimes give juveniles free products as an incentive to get them to return for future purchases from the store.

Police reported the product “Mellow Fellow” is known to be highly potent and was the product that was purchased by the minor that landed him in the hospital.

Goforth and Slone were arrested and charged with second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and first-degree wanton endangerment.

The investigation is still ongoing.