Smoking bill would prohibit smoking in vehicles carrying children
Feb. 15—By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — Bills which prohibit smoking in a vehicle while children are present as well as bills which would raise West Virginia's legal age for buying tobacco and vape products from 18 to 21 are currently being considered by the Legislature.
Senate Bill 378 would prohibit smoking inside a vehicle if a person 16 years old or less is present, according to the bill's text. People found guilty of violating this law would face a misdemeanor charge and a fine of up to $25.
"It's a no brainer," Greg Puckett, executive director of Community Connections, Inc., in Mercer County said Wednesday. "The fact is we need to protect the health of young people. One person's negative action should not impact the health of another."
Puckett said the bill would include vaping. According to the SB 378's text, a "Lit tobacco product" means any lighted pipe, cigarette, cigar, or other lighted device or product containing a tobacco-based product manufactured or made for the purpose of smoking.
Other legislation "needs to happen" in order to help protect children from second-hand smoke and vaping, Puckett said.
House bill 4187 would raise the age for buying tobacco and vape products in West Virginia from 18 to 21, according to the bill's text.
Nationally, the legal age for buying tobacco and vape products is 21, Puckett said.
"But West Virginia has never ratified that national law and we could lose federal funding if we don't act," he said.
Puckett said that he is working with other counties on ordinances which would limit where stores selling vape products can be located. The Mercer County Commission — Puckett is a member of the commission — has been looking at a vape store ordinance.
The city of Bluefield has been looking at the possibility of a vape store zoning ordinance as well. The ordinances would establish where such shops could open and how close they could be to schools and other locations where young people congregate.
Mercer County would have problems putting such an ordinance in place.
"Where Mercer County has no zoning, we don't have the authority to keep negative businesses from coming into our county," Puckett said. "And here's the thing. It's not about penalizing somebody. It's about protecting the environment and it's also why we have so many issues with dilapidated structures. We have no ability to control that until it becomes a problem. It all fits together."
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
