Kent raises age to buy tobacco to 21
Two businesses have shut down since Kent passed its new ordinance preventing the sale of tobacco products to those under 21. Thirteen cities in Ohio have passed similar laws since 2015. In July, Kent became the 14th city to join the efforts due to health advocates.
Kent City Council approved the Tobacco 21 ruling by a large majority. Tobacco 21 is a campaign started by the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation. According to its website, Tobacco 21 has become policy in more than 340 cities and counties in 21 states in the U.S., including Akron, Cleveland and Columbus.
Several factors influenced this new law being passed, but the facts drove it home. Tobacco is the No. 1 preventable cause of death in America, and while cigarettes cannot be marketed toward children or younger people, vapor products are able to be.
Vapor products are flavored as anything from chocolate to fruit, but the products still have nicotine. Some, even, with twice as much nicotine as cigarettes.
Wendy Hyde, the Ohio/Michigan regional director for Tobacco 21, said the ordinance is an important factor in helping to prevent lifelong smokers.
According to Hyde, 95 percent of lifelong smokers use tobacco before the age of 21.
“Despite the ordinance being in effect, businesses have actually not been impacted very much,” Hyde said. “Only 2 percent of tobacco buyers are between the ages of 18 and 21.”
Brandon Cossin, an 18-year-old integrated mathematics major at Kent State, started using vapor products when he was 17. At that age, Cossin said “it was a little harder to get people to get that stuff for me.”
According to the record-courier, before this ordinance was passed a survey showed 76 percent of Kent citizens were in favor of increasing the age to 21. Many surveyed, however, were also seniors who “acknowledge that they were young when they first started smoking.”
Mitchell Lohr, the lab manager of the local Kent vaporizer store Groove-E-Juice, said the opposite is true for his business.
“There have been at least two businesses in Kent that have shut down,” Lohr said. “This Tobacco 21 ordinance is hitting us hard.”
Firefly, a hookah bar next door to Groove-E-Juice, was granted an exemption to the new ordinance by the city council. Firefly is a popular place for Middle Eastern students and the business does not sell take-home products. The exemption was approved as long as the customers between the ages of 18 to 20 use the products on site. Groove-E-Juice also applied for an exemption.
At the Kent City Council meeting on Sept. 5, the council denied Groove-E-Juice’s exemption request. Lohr believes it was a mistake to deny the exemption.
“A study was done and less than 1 percent of smokers were able to stop cold turkey,” Lohr said. “One of our main goals is to provide an alternate for cigarette smoking. We feel as though we’re doing that.”
The main goal of Tobacco 21 is to aid community members as much as possible after they make the decision to address the tobacco situation in their area. According to Hyde, 90 percent of smokers under the age of 18 get the products from tobacco buyers between the ages of 18 and 21. This new ordinance could help put an end to smoking and vaping at younger ages.
“What people don’t understand is that we are against Juuls,” Lohr said. “That’s what most of the kids are getting addicted to at young ages, but we don’t even sell those. We just try to get people away from smoking cigarettes.”
A Juul, a type of e-cigarette with highly concentrated nicotine vaporizer, started becoming increasingly popular in 2017 “with unit sales increasing more than 600 percent,” according to data from Wells Fargo. Students in high school can often be found use the devices even in class, where they can be mistaken for USB flash drives. Juuls today are the most popular e-cigarette brand.
Cossin said that he can already see a difference. He explains that while younger kids, around the age of 15, may know an 18-year-old who can buy them tobacco products, they are not likely to know a 21-year-old.
“I think it’s working, I really do,” Cossin said.
However, he also believes this new ordinance may not help as much as the council and Hyde believe. If people over 18 but under 21 want to get tobacco or vape products in these cities, they can still order them online or go to a nearby city.
“It stops kids from doing it and actual adults can just drive,” Cossin said.
The new age limit will be enforced starting on Oct. 1 and affects the sale of cigarettes, other tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, alternative nicotine products and papers used to roll cigarettes. Those who do not abide can face a fine of up to $1,000 per violation.
