(File Photo, Trevor T. Trujillo, Oil City News)

CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming House of Representatives passed Senate File 50 on third reading during their Thursday, March 5 floor session. The bill aims to raise the legal age to purchase nicotine products in Wyoming from 18 to 21

On second reading, the House adopted House District 01 Representative Tyler Lindholm’s amendment which would exempt firefighters, peace officers, tribal law enforcement officers and military service members from the new minimum age requirements.

House District 19 Representative Danny Eyre said on Thursday that the exemption “make our laws more complicated, harder to understand and confusing.”

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He offered an amendment, which the House adopted, that removed the exemptions so that the minimum age requirements would “apply universally to all.”

Speaker of the House Steve Harshman offered an amendment which walked back several amendments previously adopted in the House, with the exception of an amendment from House District 11 Representative Jared Olsen.

“What we’ve seen the last couple days is ‘death by amendment,'” Harshman said.

He said the purpose of the bill was largely to address the problem of vaping among high school students.

“Everybody is vaping,” he said. “It is exploding. We are talking about the thousands of kids who are vaping in our schools today. Move forward with this, solve this problem.”

His amendment further drops penalties for minors who attempt to purchase nicotine to $25. Olsen’s amendment had dropped the penalties from $100 to $50.

The House adopted Harshman’s amendment.

His amendment keeps provisions in Olsen’s amendment intact which modify the proposed rules for people under 21 found in possession of nicotine products as opposed to being convicted of attempting to purchase such products.

That aspect of the amendment removes the possession penalties entirely. Olsen said that the point of this amendment was to remove law enforcement from dealing with youth nicotine use problems and leave that up to families and educators to address.

The minimum purchase age would apply to all products which contain nicotine, including vaping products, under the proposal. Under the House version of the bill, people could not be arrested under Wyoming law for attempting to purchase or possessing nicotine products under the age of 21.

People convicted of attempting to purchase nicotine products under the age of 21 would have this expunged from their criminal records six months after their conviction.

The House voted 37-23 to pass the bill on third reading. Since it contains amendments different from the version the Senate passed, the bill will return to the Senate for a concurrence vote.

The House’s vote was:

Ayes: BARLOW, BLACKBURN, BLAKE, BURKHART, BURLINGAME, CONNOLLY, CRANK, DAYTON-SELMAN, EKLUND, EYRE, FREEMAN, FURPHY, HALEY, HALLINAN, HENDERSON, KINNER, HARSHMAN, KIRKBRIDE, LARSEN LLOYD, LOUCKS, MACGUIRE, NEWSOME, NORTHRUP, OBERMUELLER, PELKEY, POWNALL, ROSCOE, SALAZAR, SCHWARTZ, SIMPSON, SOMMERS, SWEENEY, WALTERS, WESTERN, WILSON, YIN, ZWONITZER

Nays: BROWN, CLAUSEN, CLEM, CLIFFORD, DUNCAN, EDWARDS, FLITNER, GRAY, GREEAR, HUNT, JENNINGS, LAURSEN DAN, LINDHOLM, MILLER, NICHOLAS, OLSEN, PAXTON, PIIPARINEN, STITH, STYVAR, TASS, WASHUT, WINTER Wyoming Legislative Service Office

Further details of the bill, including other amendments, is available here.

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