County mulls age-21 requirement on tobacco

For more than a year, the Carlton County board of commissioners have heard concerns of the rising use of vaping e-cigarettes and the negative influences on the county’s youth. Earlier this summer the board instructed the county attorney to draw up a proposed ordinance to regulate purchases of any tobacco product by anyone under the age of 21.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting on Sept. 3, board members heard a presentation on the proposed ordinance. Little comment was made during this first draft. No hearings or a recommendation for county board approval has been called yet.

“There has been an explosion of vaping use by our youth,” said commissioner Gary Peterson. “Health impacts are on the rise for those using these new tobacco products. There are studies that say that use of commercial tobacco products by the young has risen 26.4 percent. Something has to be done.”

National leaders are concerned as well. On Wednesday, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said the FDA would have a plan within the coming weeks for removing most flavored e-cigarettes from the market.

There have been six deaths nationally linked to severe lung injury from vaping this month.

Statistics show that 90 percent of young people begin smoking before they reach the age of 18 and that almost no one starts smoking after the age of 25. According to the proposed ordinance, the tobacco companies use menthol, mint, fruit, candy and alcohol flavors as a way to target youth and young adults, making it difficult to quit.

Under the ordinance, a licensed business that sells tobacco products must check a government-issued photo ID to verify the purchaser is 21. Failure to follow the ordinance will bring fines. Young people under the age of 21 who try to purchase tobacco products may be required to attend tobacco-related education classes, diversion programs, or possibly community service.

“Let me make this clear.” said county attorney Lauri Ketola. “The current proposed ordinance does not have criminal impacts to those under 21 who try to buy a tobacco product. At this time, the ordinance does not criminalize people of legal age when they sell tobacco products to young people under the age of 21. This is a proposal that we start with and we will see how it evolves as we get input from the public.”

New licenses for the sale of tobacco products will not be granted to new retail establishments within 1,000 feet of youth-oriented facilities. Examples of these facilities are schools, playgrounds, recreation centers and parks. If an existing business that sells tobacco products is sold, the new regulations for operation and location take effect.

“The devices are small and concealable and have a perceived “cool” factor,” Ketola previously said to the Pine Knot News, adding that they have seen a fair number of vaping cases in the courts, but the goal of a T21 ordinance is more about public health. “The problem is that the nicotine level is so high that young people are becoming addicted, quickly. By raising the age to purchase e-cig and vaping devices and cartridges, we can reduce or delay use of nicotine. In addition, by raising the purchasing age to 21, students in the high school will be too young to purchase for younger students.”

This first draft of a tobacco ordinance raising the minimum legal age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 also included several attached comments from local public health activists. For example, in 2015 the Institute of Medicine released a report that raising the legal tobacco age to 21 would result in a 12-percent reduction of tobacco use which would probably mean 223,000 fewer premature deaths and 50,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer.