Starting June 1, tobacco products will not be sold to anyone under 21 in Iola.
City Council members on Monday voted, 6-1, to support a Tobacco 21 ordinance, making Iola the third such community in the state with such a law. Kansas City adopted a similar ordinance in November; Olathe earlier this month.
Advocates repeated their intention Monday of making similar requests in Humboldt, Moran, Gas and Mildred — wherever tobacco is sold locally.
Tobacco possession still will be allowed for those as young as 18; only the purchase will be prohibited. The ban also pertains to the sale of smokeless tobacco — Skoal, Copenhagen, etc. — as well as electronic cigarettes.
Approval came after several spoke in favor of the higher age limit.
Bobbi Bonds, speaking on behalf of the Allen County Rural Health Initiative, noted cigarettes are the only product sold in America, which if used correctly, kill roughly half of its users.
The measure is pertinent locally, Bonds noted, because the rate of tobacco use here — especially for youths under 18 — is well above the state average.
“That’s unacceptable,” she said.
Dr. Bridget McCandless, executive director of the Health Care Center of Greater Kansas City, which is a funding source for the Rural Health Initiative, made an impassioned plea in favor of the tougher ordinance.
“Prevention of tobacco use would do more to save lives than anything I could do in my career,” she said.
“Twenty-one is a magic number,” she continued. By then, an adult’s brain has developed to the point it’s no longer as susceptible to addiction.
Electronic cigarettes should be included in the ban, she noted, because they’re simply a method to deliver nicotine, with a high likelihood its users will revert back to cigarettes.
The Project 21 ordinance also was enacted in Kansas City and Independence on the Missouri side in November.
“The Kansas City area covers 800,000 people,” McCandless said. “That means there were potentially 800,000 who were able to come and complain. We’ve had collectively about 20 complaints. This gives you the idea this is a very popular ordinance.”
