- April 17, 2024
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Palm Coast City Councilman Jack Howell has been working with the city attorney to craft an ordinance to ban the sale of e-cigarette equipment to minors and to ban vaping in places where cigarette smoking is banned, he said during a Dec. 10 council workshop. The proposed ordinance would also ban the sale of e-cigarette materials through vending machines.
“I did check with the school board, and their numbers are increasing,” he said of students caught vaping in the schools. The numbers are fairly low, he said, “but one is high enough,” and some of the young e-cigarette users are in middle school.
He noted that in some cases the vape fluids include other drugs.
If the city can pass an ordinance, he said, “At least we’re on record of doing something that will be for the betterment of our citizens” on the subject. The sale of e-cigarettes to minors is also banned under state and federal law.
Howell also asked Reischmann to look into the possibility of Palm Coast joining a lawsuit by other cities, including Orlando, against manufacturers of opiates. “This is a very bad situation with this particular drug and fentanyl and what have you, and I think we need to take the lead on this and say we don’t want this stuff in our city,” he said.
He added, “The bad people always seem to get this stuff, but if it makes it a little but more difficult, so be it.”
