by Brandon Jarvis

Del. Paul Milde, R-Stafford, filed a bill that would close the loophole currently allowing people under 21 to possess nicotine products without any penalty. The current law passed by the General Assembly bans the sale of nicotine products to anyone under 21, but it does not ban the possession of nicotine products.

The bill from Milde would create a civil penalty for possession of tobacco or nicotine products.

“There’s a lot of things we don’t let our kids do, and this should be one of them,” Milde said during an interview Tuesday morning.

Milde believes many people in the General Assembly and the governor’s office were not aware that the civil penalties for possession were removed from the legislation

“It was never brought to anyone’s attention that I know of that this was one of the provisions in the bill — the elimination of the civil penalties for underage smoking,” he said.

It was brought to his attention by school resource officers who told him the kids realized that they cannot get in legal trouble for possession, even though schools have their own rules not allowing smoking products.

The bill would create a $100 civil fine for the first offense and a $250 fine for a second offense. There is also the option to replace those fines with community service.

Milde says this is not an effort to criminalize, but instead, the goal is to use civil penalties to discourage kids from using nicotine products.


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