LANSING — Two bills in the Michigan Senate that would prohibit minors from using e-cigarettes and other alternative nicotine products passed the Senate committee on regulatory reform on March 20.



Federal law prohibits the sale of tobacco products to minors, including vapor products. However, Michigan does not have any laws preventing minors from possessing the products.

Under Senate Bill 155, introduced by State Sen. Marshall Bullock II, D-Detroit, would require liquid nicotine products to meet federal child-resistant standards and would levy a misdemeanor with a $50 fine for anyone selling a product that didn't meet the standards. Under the bill, nicotine products would have to be stored behind the counter or in a locked case, and anyone who violated those standards would have a state civil infraction and a fine of $500.

Senate Bill 106, introduced State Sen. Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes, amends the Youth Tobacco Act to lay out the penalties for a minor possessing e-cigarettes or other nicotine products and for someone who sells or gives e-cigarettes to minors.

For those who sell or give a product to a minor, the penalty would be misdemeanor charges with fines of $100 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense and $2,500 for additional offenses.

If minors purchase, possess or attempt to purchase or possess a nicotine or vapor product, he or she would be subject to penalties that could include a state infraction charge with a fine of $50, 16 hours of community service and participation in a health promotion and risk reduction program.

For any additional offenses, the required community services hours would rise to 32 with a second offense and 48 with a third offense.

Stores that sell e-cigarettes and other nicotine would have to have signage explaining the law, and would have to card anyone buying these products if they appear to be younger than 27 years old.

Vaping has become increasingly popular with teenagers, particularly after the 2016 introduction of the Juul, an e-cigarette that looks like a flash drive and has a type of vapor inhalation that can go completely undetected by adults.

The federally funded Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, found that twice as many high school students used nicotine-tinged e-cigarettes in 2018 compared with 2017. The findings, based on a survey of 45,000 eighth, 10th and 12th grade students, suggested 1.3 million students used e-cigarettes.

In 2017, 32 percent of Ottawa County teens reported having used an electronic vapor product, according to the most recent Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey. While that percentage is lower than the national level (42 percent), it’s an increase from 2015, when 25 percent of local teens admitted that they had vaped.

The popularity has raised concerns about youth health and vaping. Since e-cigarettes are fairly recent, there are not many studies on health risks, and any long-term health risks are unknown. However, many of the products contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development, which continues into the early to mid-20s.