By Rick Rouan and JoAnne Viviano, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – Columbus hopes to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone younger than 21.
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If the ban is approved, the city would join several others across the state and the region that have limited tobacco sales by age, but local officials say their proposal has more teeth than others they have studied.
Under the proposal, about 2,000 tobacco retailers in the city would be required to purchase an annual sales license for $150. Stores that sell to anyone younger than 21 could face a $500 fine for a first offense and $1,000 fines for each subsequent offense.
Retailers would have to ask for identification for anyone younger than 30 who wants to purchase tobacco or tobacco paraphernalia. Tobacco also would not be sold in vending machines.
About 600,000 U.S. middle-school students and 3 million high-school students smoke cigarettes, according to a 2012 U.S. surgeon general’s report, which called smoking among young people ages 12 to 25 an “epidemic.” Nearly 90 percent of smokers start smoking by age 18; 99 percent by age 26, according to the report.
Local officials say that a ban would decrease the number of new smokers and prevent the start of lifelong addiction that could lead to other health problems.
“If we can prevent the addiction from the beginning, that’s the right start,” said Dr. Teresa Long, Columbus health commissioner.
The proposal would not criminalize the physical act of smoking for residents under the new age restriction.
Columbus City Council will vote on legislation supporting the ban in December.