(a) 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.
(b) 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) 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 subsection (b)(1), 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.
(c) As used in this section, “vending machine” has the same meaning as “coin machine” as defined in Ohio R.C. 2913.01.
(d) (1) No person shall give, sell, transfer or otherwise distribute cigarettes or other tobacco products to any person under the age of eighteen years.
(2) No person under the age of eighteen years shall knowingly show or give false information concerning his 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.
(3) 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) Whoever violates subsections (a) or (b) of this section is guilty of illegal distribution of cigarettes or other tobacco products, a misdemeanor of the third degree. If the offender previously has been convicted of a violation of this section, then illegal distribution of cigarettes or other tobacco products is a misdemeanor of the second degree.
(f) Whoever violates division (d) of this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor.
(Ord. 1996-261. Passed 2-18-97.)