(a) Definitions. As used in this section:
(1) "Cigarettes" includes any roll for smoking made wholly or in part of tobacco, irrespective of size or shape, and whether or not such tobacco is flavored, adulterated or mixed with any other ingredient.
(2) "Possess" or "possession" means having control over a thing or substance, but may not be inferred solely from mere access to the thing or substance through ownership or occupation of the premises upon which the thing or substance is found.
(3) "Sale" includes delivery, barter, exchange, transfer or gift, or offer thereof, and each transaction made by any person, whether as principal, proprietor, agent, servant or employee.
(4) "Smoke" means to burn any substance containing tobacco, including a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe or other device used to burn tobacco.
(5) "Tobacco products" includes the proceeds, yield or final form of anything made up wholly or in part of the genus of the plant known as nicotania. Such products include, but are not limited to, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff.
(6) "Use of tobacco" means to chew or maintain any substance containing tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, in the mouth to derive the effects of tobacco.
(7) "Vending machine" has the same meaning as "coin machine", as defined in Section 642.01 of this General Offense Code.
(b) Sales Generally. No manufacturer, producer, distributor, wholesaler or retailer of cigarettes or other tobacco products, or any agent, employee or representative of a manufacturer, producer, distributor, wholesaler or retailer of cigarettes or other tobacco products, shall do any of the following:
(1) Give, sell or otherwise distribute cigarettes or other tobacco products to any person under eighteen years of age;
(2) Give away, sell or distribute cigarettes or other tobacco products in any place that does not have posted in a conspicuous place a sign stating that giving, selling or otherwise distributing cigarettes or other tobacco products to a person under eighteen years of age is prohibited by law.
(c) Sales from Vending Machines. No person shall sell or offer to sell cigarettes or other tobacco products by or from a vending machine except in the following locations:
(1) In an area either:
A. Within a factory, business, office or other place not open to the general public; or
B. To which persons under the age of eighteen years are not generally permitted access;
(2) In any other place not identified in division (b)(1) hereof, upon all of the following conditions:
A. The vending machine is located within the immediate vicinity, plain view and control of the person who owns or operates the place, or an employee of such person, so that all cigarettes and other tobacco product purchases from the vending machine will be readily observed by the person who owns or operates the place or an employee of such person. For the purpose of this section, a vending machine located in any unmonitored area, including an unmonitored coatroom, restroom, hallway or outer waiting area, shall not be considered located within the immediate vicinity, plain view and control of the person who owns or operates the place, or an employee of such person.
B. The vending machine is inaccessible to the public when the place is closed.
(d) Possession and Use by Minors Prohibited.
(1) No person shall give, sell, transfer or otherwise distribute cigarettes or other tobacco products to any person under eighteen years of age.
(2) No person under eighteen years of age shall smoke, use cigarettes or other tobacco products, or possess any substance containing tobacco.
(3) No person under eighteen years of age shall order, pay for, purchase, share the cost of or attempt to purchase cigarettes or other tobacco products.
(4) No person under eighteen years of age shall knowingly show or give false information concerning his or her name, age or other identification for the purpose of purchasing or otherwise obtaining cigarettes or other tobacco products in any place in the City where cigarettes or other tobacco products are sold.
(5) No person shall knowingly furnish any false information as to the name, age or other identification of any person under eighteen years of age for the purpose of obtaining, or with the intent to obtain, cigarettes or other tobacco products for a person under eighteen years of age, by purchase or as a gift.
(e) Immunity. No person may be found guilty of a violation of the provisions of this section where age is an element of the offense. If any court determines that the person buying, at the time of so doing, exhibited to the aforesaid person, or his or her agent or employee, a driver's license or commercial driver's license or a state-issued identification card showing that such person was then of legal age to buy cigarettes or other tobacco products; and if such person made a bona fide effort to ascertain the true age of the person buying by checking the identification presented at the time of the purchase; to ascertain that the description of the identification presented compared with the visual description of the buyer and the identification presented had not been altered in any way and if the aforesaid person had reason to believe that the person buying was of legal age.
(f) Penalties.
(1) Whoever violates any of the provisions of division (b) hereof is guilty of illegal distribution of cigarettes or other tobacco products, a misdemeanor of the fourth degree. If the offender has previously been convicted of a violation of division (b) hereof, then illegal distribution of cigarettes or other tobacco products is a misdemeanor of the third degree. The penalty shall be as provided in Section 698.02.
(2) Whoever violates division (c) hereof is guilty of possession and use by a minor, a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.
(Ord. 98-55. Passed 5-4-98.)