Cleveland ups cigarette smoking age from 18 to 21: Cleveland City Council passes city law sponsored by Councilman Cimperman that raises age limit from 18 to 21 to purchase cigarettes, and of which is contrary to the state law mandate of 18-years-old....Local business owners call for the mayor to veto the legislation....The new city law, says sources, pertains to vendors but will ultimately be amended to impose criminal penalties against the Black young people impacted where Blacks are disproportionately arrested, charged, criminally prosecuted, and convicted and jailed or imprisoned in the city of Cleveland, in Ohio, and nationwide....Cimperman says that the new city law will save lives....By Cleveland Urban News.Com Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman
 By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 23-year political, educational, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. Our news website and blog get more than 2.4 million viewers on Google Plus alone. |
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| Cleveland Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman |
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio-Led by Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman, who is White and in 2008 ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat then held by veteran and former congressman Dennis Kucinich, Cleveland City Council, at its regular meeting Monday night, passed an ordinance to raise the age limit from 18 to 21 in which people can purchase cigarettes in the city.
The ordinance, which Cimperman sponsored as chair of city council's Heath and Human Services Committee, and of which also includes alternative nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, is contrary to the state law age limit requirement of 18-years-old. (See Ohio Revised Code [state law] 2151.87).
Whether Cleveland City Council's new ordinance, which passed 14-2, can trump state law is questionable, and remains to be seen. And it also fuels the debate on whether it is contradictory and proper to restrict the rights of adults who can vote and serve in the military.
West side councilpersons Donna Brady and Brain Kazy voted against the ordinance.
Hawaii and New York city have state laws that impose a 21-year-old age limit for buying tobacco products. And seven other states, including New Jersey, but excluding Ohio, have introduced proposed legislation on the state level to raise the age limit to 21.
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| Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson |
The city ordinance awaits the mayor's signature, and absent an unlikely veto by Frank Jackson, the city's three-term Black mayor, or any interfering court challenges, it could become law as early as March of next year
Last year Cuyahoga County voters extended a county sin tax on alcohol and cigarettes, estimated at some $260 million over 20 years, and for stadium upkeep for the Browns' FirstEnergy Stadium, the Indians' Progressive Field and the Cavaliers' Quicken Loans Arena.
And since neighboring Cleveland suburbs traditionally lack any similar ordinance, sources told Cleveland Urban News.Com yesterday that young people at least 18, but under the age of 21, and eager to buy cigarettes without a hassle, can simply take their monies elsewhere, and likely to next door municipalities.
A group of local business owners, in a letter to the mayor on Tuesday spearheaded by Ann Gross, president of Retail Buying Solutions, and its manager of operations, Tim Beech, say just that.
They want Jackson to veto the legislation.
And while city council says that the new ordinance applies only to vendors and not consumers, sources say that consumers are at risk for potential criminal penalties, and that if it is illegal to sell the tobacco products to young people 18-21 and younger, it is essentially illegal for them to purchase such items.
They want Jackson to veto the legislation.
And while city council says that the new ordinance applies only to vendors and not consumers, sources say that consumers are at risk for potential criminal penalties, and that if it is illegal to sell the tobacco products to young people 18-21 and younger, it is essentially illegal for them to purchase such items.
Per the ordinance, a first offense is a fourth-degree misdemeanor and subsequent offenses are second degree misdemeanors, the former punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine, and the latter of which carries a 90 day sentence.
But also at issue, which Cimperman and a majority of his city council colleagues seemed to have ignored, are heightened criminal penalties relative to the city legislation that will disproportionately impact Cleveland's Black community.
For sure, say sources, there will be arrests of young people seeking to buy the cigarettes who are unaware of the confusing law, and there is no guarantee that the legislation will not be amended to include criminal penalties for consumers as well as vendors.
A progressive councilman by some standards whose largely White west side ward includes the neighborhoods of St. Clair-Superior, Tremont, Ohio City, Duck Island, Old Brooklyn, Brooklyn Centre, the Flats, and downtown Cleveland, Cimperman, a city councilman since 1997, says that the new ordinance will save lives.
But also at issue, which Cimperman and a majority of his city council colleagues seemed to have ignored, are heightened criminal penalties relative to the city legislation that will disproportionately impact Cleveland's Black community.
For sure, say sources, there will be arrests of young people seeking to buy the cigarettes who are unaware of the confusing law, and there is no guarantee that the legislation will not be amended to include criminal penalties for consumers as well as vendors.
A progressive councilman by some standards whose largely White west side ward includes the neighborhoods of St. Clair-Superior, Tremont, Ohio City, Duck Island, Old Brooklyn, Brooklyn Centre, the Flats, and downtown Cleveland, Cimperman, a city councilman since 1997, says that the new ordinance will save lives.
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States, and more than 480,000 Americans die each year at the hands of cigarettes with more than 41,000 of these deaths from exposure to secondhand smoke.
A major American city, Cleveland is roughly 53 percent Black and 37 percent White, and has a population of some 375,000 people.
Blacks, however, make up some 68 percent of Cleveland arrests, according to a recent IBTimes analysis of data from the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
Data are explicit in noting that Blacks are disproportionately arrested, charged, criminally prosecuted, and convicted and jailed or imprisoned in the city of Cleveland, in Ohio, and nationwide.
The Cleveland legislation is in cooperation with a bill pending in the U.S. Senate sponsored and pushed by some congressional Democrats that seeks to force jurisdictions across the country to block sales of tobacco products to young adults and establishes a new national age limit of 21.
Passage of the congressional bill is unlikely for now, say sources, since Republicans that control both chambers in Congress are not rushing to embrace the legislative proposal.
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