Lakewood Cracks Down On Youth Vaping

From The City of Lakewood: To protect the health of teens and prevent them from becoming dependent on nicotine, Lakewood has started a licensing program for stores that sell vaping, e-cigarettes and similar devices and is creating a public information campaign to educate stores and the public about the program.

“All the evidence, including from teens themselves, shows that teen vaping is an epidemic, especially in Colorado, and we want to take action to help teens grow up healthy and without becoming dependent on nicotine,” Mayor Adam Paul said.

Lakewood City Council approved the program under a new law last month, and it became effective on March 2. It prohibits all stores from selling these products to anyone under 18 years old, and store employees must check IDs of those purchasing the products, which are officially known as “noncigarette tobacco” items. Under the new law, the city will inspect all stores that sell these products to ensure they are complying with the new city law. If they are not, a store’s license can be suspended or revoked similar to the liquor licensing program.

Lakewood has also created a logo that captures the goal of the program, and it will appear on all of the program’s materials including letters already sent to stores alerting them to the new law. City Clerk Margy Greer, who administers the program, said the public information logo is important to convey a clear and strong message about the purpose of the law.