Part of nationwide trend to counter vaping
Photo by Vivek Chugh from FreeImages
Alachua County has become the first Florida County to raise the legal age for buying tobacco to 21. The move is meant to make it harder for high schoolers to get cigarettes and to also stem the double-digit increase in vaping and use of other electronic smoking products. Alachua joins 430 other communities and six states that have raised their tobacco sales age from 18 to 21. The rest of Florida remains at age 18 for now.
The ordinance takes effect this September and applies to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, vaping, and liquid nicotine devices. Under the law, tobacco vendors will now have to pay a $230 annual license fee and cannot be located within 1,000 feet of a public school. Violators face 90-day license suspensions and eventually a lifetime revocation for three or more violations within a two-year period.
The new law applies to sales only – not the use of tobacco. So those under age 21 can still possess and use tobacco. Teen smoking rates have declined over the past decade while vaping, which is inhaling nicotine-laced vapor through an electronic device such as an e-cigarette, has increased. About one in four Florida high school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2018, up 58% from the year before.
The federal government has declared vaping a nationwide epidemic. Although the vapor doesn’t contain the harmful tar and carcinogens of traditional cigarettes, it does contain the equivalent nicotine, which is an addictive chemical. The Food and Drug Administration announced plans last fall to restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to youth. Research indicates e-cigarettes can affect brain development in teenagers. This week, Tobacco Free Florida, the state’s smoking prevention initiative, is kicking off a new campaign to discourage kids from vaping.
It will be interesting to see if Alachua County’s exercise of home rule here will withstand muster by the state legislature, which in recent months has diligently sought to remove county and city rules on such issues as vegetable gardens and use of plastic straws, often in favor of establishing statewide regulation instead.
LMA Newsletter of 4-22-19
