Colorado Revised Statute 18-13-121 C.R.S. makes it a civil infraction to give, sell, or offer for sale a cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product to anyone under 21. The fine is $200.
Below our Denver Colorado criminal defense lawyers will discuss:
- 1. Prohibited Items
- 2. Checking IDs
- 3. Penalties
- 4. Defenses
- 5. Federal Cigarette Laws
- Additional Reading
1. Prohibited Items
In Colorado, you may not give or sell people under 21 any product that contains nicotine or tobacco or is derived from tobacco and is intended to be:
- ingested,
- inhaled, or
- applied to the skin.
It is also prohibited to give people under 21 devices for ingesting or inhaling tobacco or nicotine, such as:
- electronic cigarettes,
- cigars, cigarillos, and
- pipes.
However, “cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product” does not include any product that the Food and Drug Administration of the United States (FDA) has approved as a tobacco use cessation product.
2. Checking IDs
Unless a person appears older than 30, Colorado law requires you to ask for a government-issued photo ID to establish the person as being at least 21 before you can:
- give,
- sell,
- distribute,
- dispense, or
- offer for sale
any cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product to them.
3. Penalties
Selling cigarettes, tobacco or nicotine to a person under 21 is a civil infraction in Colorado. The penalty for selling tobacco to a person under 21 is a $200 fine.1
4. Defenses
Here at Colorado Legal Defense Group, we have represented countless people charged with violating CRS 18-13-121. In our experience, it is an effective “affirmative defense” to claim that you reasonably relied upon a document that identified the individual receiving the cigarette, tobacco product, or nicotine product as being 21 years of age or older.
These days, it can be very difficult to distinguish between fake and genuine IDs. As long as any reasonable person in your position could not have told the difference, your charge should be dropped.
Note that you also should not be convicted if the person under 21 was acting at the direction of an employee of a governmental agency authorized to enforce or ensure compliance with laws relating to the prohibition of the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products to underage people. In short, the government is not allowed to entrap you by using an underage person to try to buy tobacco from you.
5. Federal Cigarette Laws
Like Colorado law, federal law prohibits the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to anyone under 21. The federal Family Smoking Prevention And Tobacco Control Act applies to the sale of cigarettes, tobacco and nicotine products on federally owned or controlled property such as military bases and Indian reservations within Colorado.
Additional Reading
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- The Merchants, Not the Customers: Resisting the Alcohol and Tobacco Industries’ Strategy to Blame Young People for Illegal Alcohol and Tobacco Sales – Journal of Public Health Policy.
- Youth Access to Tobacco Products – Growing up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youths.
- Cigarette Availability to Minors – Journal of Osteopathic Medicine.
- Lighting Up the Battle against the Tobacco Industry: New Regulations Prohibiting Cigarette Sales to Minors – Rutgers Law Journal.
- Restrictions on Youth Access to Tobacco Products – Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products.
Legal References
- Prior to March 1, 2022, furnishing tobacco to minors was a Colorado class 2 petty offense. SB21-271.