Although the Genessee County Board members approved the Tobacco 21 ordinance that raised the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 in February 2017, the state Court of Appeals has ruled that the county ordinance is pre-empted by state law.
The court ruled Dec. 6 in RPF Oil Co. v. Genessee County to strike the regulations. Genessee County residents age 18 and older can purchase tobacco products, the Court of Appeals ruled.
RPF Oil, a company that owns and operates convenience stores, filed a lawsuit in the county challenging the ordinance on May 12, 2017, just three days before it was supposed to take effect, according to a report from MLive.com.
In 2017, MLive.com reported that then-Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette had issued an opinion regarding an Ann Arbor initiative to do the same thing that Genessee County attempted. Schuette’s opinion was that the move conflicted with state law, and this is something that both a trial court and the appeals court have affirmed. Commissioner Drew Shapiro opposed the initial ordinance.
Also in 2017, MLive quoted Shapiro as saying that his fellow commissioners couldn’t separate emotion from this issue and that the board would be using taxpayer dollars to fight an “unwinnable lawsuit.”
Neither Ann Arbor nor Genessee County are enforcing their Tobacco 21 ordinances.
When Ann Arbor’s council approved its Tobacco 21 ordinance in a 9-2 vote in 2016, Fourth Ward Councilman Jack Eaton and Second Ward Councilwoman Jane Lumm, who represents the Second Ward, voted against the ordinance, saying it went against state law, according to MLive.
One goal of the Tobacco 21 ordinances were to reduce the number of high school students who start smoking by making it more difficult to obtain cigarettes, whether they were purchasing cigarettes themselves or asking their older peers to purchase them.
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