Prohibition Against Selling Tobacco Products to Individuals Under 21 Amendment Act of 2016
Under the District of Columbia Official Code, any place or business where a person sells any tobacco product, the owner, manager, or person in charge of the place or business is required to post a warning sign that includes the following: “No person under 21 years of age shall purchase any tobacco product. Sales clerks will ask for proof of age from any person seeking to purchase any cigarette or other tobacco product who appears to be under 30 years of age. The United States Surgeon General has issued a warning that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.”
In the text of the law, tobacco product is defined as “any product that is made from or derived from tobacco and is intended for human consumption or is likely to be consumed, whether smoked, heated, chewed, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, or ingested by any other means, including through a cigarette, a cigar, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, smokeless tobacco, or any electronic smoking device.”
The warning sign posted pursuant to the law must clearly state the maximum fine for a violation of the law. The sign must be visible to the public at the entrance to the area and on the interior of the area in sufficient number to give notice of the law to the public. This sign is also required in a tavern, nightclub, establishment or restaurant. (DC Code § 7-1721.02)