April 14, 2014
By John Keilman
Tribune reporter
The village of Barrington has an ordinance that forbids minors from possessing e-cigarettes, and the local school system also bans the devices. But such is the concern over “vaping” — the practice of inhaling nicotine-spiked vapor through a battery-powered pipe — that when a student is caught with the gear, the police are alerted, too.
“The issue with e-cigarettes is we can never be sure of the substance that’s being vaporized,” said Jeff Arnett, spokesman for Barrington District 220. “It could be a controlled substance.”
So far Barrington police haven’t found any drugs after testing confiscated e-cigarettes, but the precaution illustrates the tricky legalities of trying to keep the devices out of the hands of children, who appear to be growing ever more intrigued by vaping.
After the state recently declined to pass a law banning teen possession of the popular devices, many Chicago-area towns have been scrambling to write their own ordinances to make it illegal for teens to have them, laws that carry a wide range of penalties.
They’re trying to combat what appears to be a rise in e-cigarette use among teens. While teen smoking rates have been cut in half over the past 15 years, some research indicates that e-cigarettes, often marketed as devices designed to help adults quit smoking tobacco, are finding plenty of devotees among the underage. The most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey, for instance, found that 1 in 10 high schoolers have tried vaping.
Such statistics, along with the uncertain health risks posed by e-cigarettes, drove Illinois lawmakers last year to ban the sale of the devices to people under 18. Lost in the legislative back-and-forth, though, was a provision that made it illegal for children to possess the devices.