A. Sales, Possession:
1. No person under twenty-one (21) years of age shall buy any tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or alternative nicotine product. No person shall sell, buy for, distribute samples of any tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or any alternative nicotine product to any person under twenty-one (21) years of age.
2. Signs informing the public of the age restrictions provided for in this subsection shall be posted by every person or business engaging in the sale of tobacco at or near every display of tobacco products and on or upon every vending machine which offers tobacco products for sale. Each such sign shall be plainly visible and shall state:
THE SALE OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS TO PERSONS UNDER 21 YEARS OF AGE IS PROHIBITED BY LAW.
3. Sales by Minors. No person under sixteen (16) years of age may sell any tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or alternative nicotine product at a retail establishment. This subsection does not apply to a salesclerk in a family-owned business which can prove that the salesclerk is in fact a son or daughter of the owner.
4. Purchase by Minors:
a. It shall be unlawful for any person under the age of twenty-one (21) years to purchase tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, or alternative nicotine products.
b. Before selling, offering for sale, giving, or furnishing a tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or alternative nicotine product to another person, the person selling, offering for sale, giving or furnishing the tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or alternative nicotine product shall verify that the person is at least twenty-one (21) years of age by examining a government-issued photographic identification that establishes the person to be twenty-one (21) years of age or older; or
c. For sales of tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, or alternative nicotine products through the Internet or other remote sales methods, performing an age verification through an independent, third-party age verification service that compares information available from public records to the personal information entered by the person during the ordering process that establishes the person is twenty-one (21) years of age or older.
d. No person under the age of twenty-one (21) shall display or use a false or forged identification card to purchase or obtain any tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or alternative nicotine product.
5. Proximity To Certain Institutions: It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, give away or deliver tobacco products within five hundred feet (500') of any school, childcare facility or other building used exclusively for education or recreational programs for persons under the age of eighteen (18) years, as measured from property line to property line.
6. Penalty: If a person under twenty-one (21) years of age violates this subsection, the person shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each offense.
7. For the purpose of this Section:
a. "Alternative nicotine product" means a product or device not consisting of or containing tobacco that provides for the ingestion into the body of nicotine, whether by chewing, smoking, absorbing, dissolving, inhaling, snorting, sniffing, or by any other means. "Alternative nicotine product" does not include cigarettes as defined in Section 1 of the Tobacco Products Act of 1995.
b. "Electronic cigarette" means:
(1) Any device that employs a battery or other mechanism to heat a solution or substance to produce a vapor or aerosol intended for inhalation; or
(2) Any cartridge or container of a solution or substance intended to be used with or in the device or to refill the device; or
(3) Any solution or substance, whether it contains nicotine intended for use on this devise or not.
(4) "Electronic cigarette" includes, but is not limited to, any electronic nicotine delivery system, electronic cigar, electronic cigarillo, electronic pipe, electronic hookah, vape pen, or similar product or device and any component or parts that can be used to build the product or device. "Electronic cigarette" does not include cigarettes as defined in Section 1 of the Cigarette Tax Act and tobacco products as defined in Section 10-5 of the Tobacco Products Act of 1995.
B. Use, Possession Near Schools: It shall be unlawful for any person under the age of twenty-one (21) to use or possess any tobacco product, electronic cigarette, or alternative nicotine product, as defined above, within five hundred feet (500') of any elementary or secondary school as measured from the property line of such school. Any person violating this subsection shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for each offense.
(1999 Code §§ 15.03 and 15.05; Ord. 96-18, 10-8-1996; 2005 Code; Ord. 2023-09, 8-8-2023)