(1) (a) A person shall not give, sell, distribute, dispense, or offer for sale a cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product to any person who is under twenty-one years of age.
(b) Before giving, selling, distributing, dispensing, or offering to sell to an
individual any cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product, a person shall
request from the individual and examine a government-issued photographic
identification that establishes that the individual is twenty-one years of age or
older.
(c) A person who violates subsection (1)(a) or (1)(b) of this section commits a
civil infraction and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of two
hundred dollars, notwithstanding the provisions of section 18-1.3-503.
(d) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under subsection (1)(a) of this
section that the person furnishing the cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine
product was presented with and reasonably relied upon a government-issued
photographic identification that identified the individual receiving the cigarette,
tobacco product, or nicotine product as being twenty-one years of age or older.
(2) Repealed.
(3) (a) Nothing in this section prohibits a statutory or home rule municipality,
county, or city and county from enacting an ordinance or resolution that prohibits
the sale of any cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products to persons under
twenty-one years of age or imposes requirements more stringent than provided in
this section.
(b) A statutory or home rule municipality, county, or city and county shall not
enact an ordinance or resolution that establishes a minimum age to purchase
cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products that is under twenty-one years of
age.
(3.5) Nothing in this section affects federal laws concerning cigarettes,
tobacco products, or nicotine products, as they apply to military bases and Indian
reservations within the state.
(4) (Deleted by amendment, L. 98, p. 1185, § 2, effective July 1, 1998.)
(5) (a) As used in this section, cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine
product means:
(I) A product that contains nicotine or tobacco or is derived from tobacco and
is intended to be ingested or inhaled by or applied to the skin of an individual; or
(II) Any device that can be used to deliver tobacco or nicotine to the person
inhaling from the device, including an electronic cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, or pipe.
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of paragraph (a) of this subsection (5) to
the contrary, cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product does not mean a
product that the food and drug administration of the United States department of
health and human services has approved as a tobacco use cessation product.
L. 87: Entire section added, p. 676, § 1, effective July 1. L. 91: Entire section amended, p. 410, § 1, effective April 19. L. 97: (4)(a) amended, p. 794, § 1, effective May 16; L. 98: (2) and (4) amended, p. 1185, § 2, effective July 1. L. 2001: (2)(a) amended, p. 581, § 6, effective July 1. L. 2008: (1), (2)(a), and (3) amended and (5) added, p. 886, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2011: (5) amended, (HB 11-1016), ch. 60, p. 157, § 1, effective March 25. L. 2014: Entire section amended, (SB 14-018), ch. 113, p. 406, § 1, effective April 11. L. 2019: (3) amended, (HB 19-1033), ch. 53, p. 184, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2020: (1)(a), (1)(b), (1)(d), and (3) amended and (2) repealed, (HB 20-1001), ch. 302, p. 1502, § 1, effective July 14. L. 2021: (1)(c) amended, (SB 21-271), ch. 462, p. 3217, § 372, effective March 1, 2022.
