Sorry for the long post but here is what happened at the Commissioners meeting. The reason I am posting it is to show the shear ignorance and blatant stupidity of these Officials and all I could do at one point was shake my head, I only had 2 minutes as opposed to the zealots who were there had in total 10 minutes.
County targets e-cigs; Nov. 5 hearing set
By Bill Thompson
Staff writer
Published: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 4:27 p.m.
The County Commission will consider reducing
the power of electronic cigarettes.
After a handful of speakers urged them on,
commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday
to schedule a public hearing for a county
ordinance that would prohibit the sale of
e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine to minors, force
retailers to move the devices and associated
products behind the counter, and forbid their
use in places where traditional smoking is
outlawed.
The hearing is set for Nov. 5.
Commissioner David Moore, the ordinance's advocate, argued at Tuesday's meeting
that Marion County needed its own law to fill a regulatory void left open by
Tallahassee and Washington.
Moore told the audience that as a college student he had used nicotine to kill mole
crickets infesting the golf course where he worked.
A substance that toxic needed to be kept from children, Moore indicated.
County Attorney Guy Minter pointed out that the state Division of Alcoholic
Beverages and Tobacco says Florida law, as it does with traditional cigarettes,
already prohibits sales of e-cigarettes to minors.
The agency claims such sales are illegal because it lumps e-cigarettes in with other
tobacco products.
Despite that, though, state laws governing tobacco do not specifically address
e-cigarettes.
A proposed bill in the state Senate attempts to fix that. The measure from state Sen.
Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, would redefine e-cigarettes as alternative
nicotine products, whose sale to minors would be outlawed.
Benacquisto's bill also expands the definition of e-cigarettes to encompass electronic
cigars, cigarillos, pipes, or and any other similar device or product.
Moore maintained that Marion County still needed to act because the bill might not
pass.
Among the five audience members who supported the proposed ordinance, T.J.
Harrington, policy director with the Quit Doc Research and Education Foundation,
an anti-smoking group, agreed that the bill might not pass.
Even if it did, he added, the earliest it would take effect would be next July 1.
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During that time, Harrington said, nothing would prevent retailers from selling
e-cigarettes to minors.
Manette Cheshareck, facilitator of the Tobacco Free Partnership of Marion County, a
coalition of local leaders that promotes preventative steps against tobacco use, said
e-cigarettes should be barred for purchase by minors because the health effects are
unknown.
Youth see people using these things and it normalizes it, it makes it seem like it's
OK, she said.
This is right out of the playbook of Big Tobacco. They unleash these products on an
unknowing public and decades later we find lots of folks have been adversely
affected, and even dying from their use, Cheshareck said. We need to protect our
youth from this. Once you're addicted to something, that's lifelong.
This is the second time this year the board has worked toward stemming tobacco
purchases by young people.
Six months ago, the commission adopted a resolution that encouraged local vendors
to stop marketing and selling fruit- and candy-flavored tobacco products to minors.
The document also called attention to the threat posed by e-cigarettes.
Basically PM is your friend 
.
