(A) Prohibitions. Except as provided under § 113.03(A) of this chapter, it is unlawful for a person who is under 18 years of age to purchase, receive or have in his or her possession a tobacco product, or to present or offer to any person any purported proof of age which is false or fraudulent for the purpose of purchasing or receiving any tobacco product.
(B) Consequences; tobacco education, tobacco-related community service; procedure.
(1) Upon conviction of an individual for an offense under division (A) above, the court shall suspend execution of sentence and shall require the defendant to attend a tobacco education program. The court shall require the parent or guardian of the defendant to attend the tobacco education program with the defendant.
(2) If access to the tobacco education program is not readily available, the court shall require the defendant to perform eight to 12 hours of tobacco-related community service instead of attending a tobacco education program.
(3) The tobacco education program and the tobacco-related community service are remedial and are not punishment.
(4) No later than the ninetieth day after the date of conviction under division (A) above, the defendant shall present to the court, in a manner required by the court, evidence of satisfactory completion of the tobacco education program or the tobacco-related community service.
(5) On receipt of the evidence required under division (B)(4) above, the court shall:
(a) If the defendant has been convicted of a previous offense under division (A) above, which offense occurred within one year prior to the offense for which the defendant is currently charged, execute the sentence and, at the discretion of the court, assess a fine of not less than $10 and not more than $200.
(b) If the defendant has not been convicted of a previous offense under division (A) above, which offense occurred within one year prior to the offense for which the defendant is currently charged, dismiss the complaint and discharge the defendant.
(6) If the court dismisses the complaint under division (B)(5)(b) above, the defendant is released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense; except that, the defendant is considered to have been convicted of the offense if the defendant is subsequently convicted of the same charge if such a repeat offense occurs within one year of the dismissed offense.
(C) Expungement of conviction. Any person convicted of an offense under division (A) above may apply to the court to have the conviction expunged. If the court finds that the individual satisfactorily completed the tobacco education program or tobacco-related community service ordered by the court and that there has been no subsequent offense for a period of at least one year after the date of the offense for which the person was convicted, the court shall order the conviction and any complaint, verdict, sentence or other document relating to the offense to be expunged from the individual’s record, and the conviction may not be shown or made known for any purpose.
(D) Suspension of driver’s license. If the defendant does not provide the evidence required under division (B)(4) above within the period specified by that subsection or upon failure of the defendant to pay any fine authorized by this section within 90 days of the day of the assessment of such fine, the Court Clerk or his or her designee shall notify the state’s Department of Public Safety, as such Department is authorized to suspend or not issue a driver’s license to the person until the required evidence or proof of payment has been provided.
(Prior Code, § 5-4A-6) (Ord. 1-1998, passed 1-5-1998)