Finally, a sensible e-cig legislation

[spydre]

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law an order stating that e-cigarettes, materials, and juices, are illegal to be sold to in the State of Illinois to persons under the age of 18. Granted, the two shops in my area both explicitly state no one under 18 allowed inside the shop. This even extends to parents bringing toddlers shopping with them. But there was no law on the books anywhere limiting the sale of e-cigarette products to adults only - it was the shops owners policies that limited it.

Looking back to when I started smoking, I am appalled at how easy it was for me to get cigarettes at the age of 15. And not just 15 made up to look good, to look older. Fifteen looking, well, like 15 year olds look at 11 at night when they're tired, and they just want a cigarette, or a 15 year old that's just walked a mile to get to a gas station that will sell to her (by an attendant that's maybe 18 tops). Hell, I even walked into a gas station in my high school girls show choir outfit (trust me, no one wears THAT dress willingly) and was sold cigarettes. Once I was 17, and had checking account, if I wrote checks at Quik Trip, they didn't even ask for ID on the check, I just had to put my social or DL# on the check. At THAT Quik Trip, I didn't get carded for cigarettes until I was 21, carrying a toddler in my arms, pregnant with child number 2, and I got pissed off that I had to set squirming toddler down (and I put him on the counter) so I could rifle around to get my license out of my wallet because I walked in, cash in hand for my gas and the pack of cigarettes I wanted to pick up.

I knew every place I could go to that I wouldn't get carded for cigarettes. The little quicky mart type thing near my home was a no go, because they'd seen me grow up, they knew I wasn't 18. The gas stations and hit n run near the high school were no gos because hey, high school kids are gonna want cigarettes, and I bet some of them are underage.

And at that time, in Illinois, stupidest law of all time, you had to be 18 to purchase cigarettes, but only 16 to possess cigarettes. BUT, at least nominally, students couldn't possess them on high school property. I heard of 1 girl my senior year that got sent to her assistant principle's office for possessing cigarettes on school property, but that was ONE girl. If they really wanted to bust kids for possessing cigarettes on school property, all they had to do was stand at the parking lot entrance and the back parking lot entrance, near where people gathered off campus to smoke before school and on lunch, and bust them when they came back on campus.

But I also remember the days when you could get a note from your mom, take it up to the store that said, "I can't get out due to being sick, having a sick baby, whatever, please let my daughter buy x cigarettes and bring them home to me" - my sister did that a couple times, had me get her cigarettes when her baby was sick.