City council members unanimously passed an ordinance amendment that bans both the use of e-cigarettes by minors and the sale of e-cigarettes to minors at Thursday’s meeting.
“[The e-cig] vote went back for re-submittal at the last meeting, they decided to bring it back just about the children [minors],” Councilwoman Julia Schultz said. “They don’t want children to be in possession or be able to buy [e-cigs], so we voted on that.”
During the meeting Councilwoman Blanche Brick motioned to add the controversial 3rd provision of the original ordinance, which would also prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in areas where “traditional” tobacco products are currently prohibited.
“Essentially we were just asking for more time to figure out what’s the best way to design [Provision 3],” Chris Jarmon, assistant to College Station city manager, said. “Originally council had asked us to look at a larger public use restriction, but to build in some exemptions. We initially removed it just to give us some more time to take a look at that and see what the best way was to move forward.”
Councilwoman Brick’s proposal was shut down in a 4-3 vote. Both Mayor Nancy Berry and Shultz voted in favor of Brick’s proposal, but those opposed argued that the state and federal government have not issued a policy on e-cigs and that there is not enough scientific research at the moment to include Provision 3.
Shultz said College Station is leading the way by prohibiting minors from obtaining e-cigarettes.
“We’re one of the first municipality that is addressing it, but probably because we’re a college town I imagine it will be much easier to get it in other cities and kids will go there and bring them home,” Shultz said. “They’ll probably pass that legislation in other cities as well so the kids at least won’t be able to get to them. We’re just one of the firsts.”
Jarmon said it is possible that this issue, brought before the council three times now, will be brought up again in the future.
“I’m sure it will come back again,” Jarmon said. “E-cigarettes [are a] fairly new product, they keep growing and they keep developing and variants of those products are created.”