Tobacco sales to customers under the age of 21 will be illegal in Cleveland starting Thursday.
Cleveland City Council passed a law last December, banning the sale of tobacco to people under the age of 21.
The ordinance, which passed 13 to 3, does not make it illegal for people under the age of 21 to smoke tobacco, it just makes it illegal for them to buy it.
It also prohibits individuals from selling, giving or otherwise distributing cigarettes and other tobacco products to people under the age of 21.
Violators could be charged with a fourth-degree misdemeanor with a penalty of 30 days imprisonment and/or a $250 fine.
The law was passed after a report by the Ohio State University College of Public Health indicated that raising the minimum age to buy and sell cigarettes to 21 would save lives by preventing adolescents and young adults from ever taking up smoking since nearly all adult smokers began smoking by the age of eighteen and almost no one starts smoking after twenty-one.
