The discussion of whether the city of Lawrence should create a local ordinance to raise the age to purchase tobacco-related products to 21 will be coming to City Hall.
At the City Commission’s meeting Tuesday, Vice Mayor Lisa Larsen made a motion to add the topic to a future commission work session agenda. Larsen said she would like to have a discussion about the pros and cons and about what other cities are doing.
“There seems to be a big push,” Larsen said. “I think that there’s some merit to getting more details about what would be expected from that type of a program.”
City staff both said that a key element of that discussion would be the legality of such ordinances. City Attorney Toni Wheeler told the commission that the city of Topeka’s ordinance raising the age to 21 has been successfully challenged in court and that city staff would continue to review the case.
“We’ll have some more information on the legality here soon,” Wheeler said. “It’s not a closed question yet.”
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