A. For the purposes of this section, “smoke” means to carry or hold any lighted pipe, cigar, or cigarette of any kind or any other lighted smoking equipment or to light or inhale or exhale smoke from a pipe, cigar, or cigarette of any kind or any other lighted smoking equipment.
B. It is unlawful for a person to smoke in a motor vehicle, whether in motion or at rest, when a minor under the age of eight is present in the motor vehicle. A violation of this section is punishable by a civil penalty of $100 to be paid into the state treasury and credited to the Literary Fund. No demerit points shall be assigned under Article 19 (§ 46.2-489 et seq.) of Chapter 3 and no court costs shall be assessed for a violation of this section. A violation of this section may be charged on the uniform traffic summons form.
C. No citation for a violation of this section shall be issued unless the officer issuing such citation has cause to stop or arrest the driver of such motor vehicle for the violation of some other provision of this Code or local ordinance relating to the operation, ownership, or maintenance of a motor vehicle or any criminal statute.
I’m posting this, as I set my google homepage to open to my local news, and I saw a “first ticket issue, someone was smoking in their car”. As a vaper/vapor/vapeth/he ye who vapeth… Could they hit us with this? (Note, I do have little ones, but I rarely hit my vape with them in my car)
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I reckon it’s fair enough, in anything lenient. In Australia, It’s already in place and I can’t say that I have a problem with it.
I wouldn’t wish frequent exposure on my kid, considering the impact that nicotine has had on my life. Thinking back, my parents often smoked cigs inside the house/car and I wonder if this wasn’t the beginnings of my lifelong nicotine addiction.
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Both of mine did as well, along with maternal and paternal grandparents. Thinking back, all of my friends that started smoking as kids were from households that had smoking parents. The ones that came from non-smoking households never picked up the habit, or if they did they didn’t have nearly as hard of a time quitting as the others did. Anecdotal, I know, but still makes me ponder the possibilities.
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I live in ohio, and in this state vaping is considered smoking, i think its like that in most states
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As @cooper says been in force here for about 8 years or more in some states. Vaping is same penalty as smoking since our government is a bunch of idiots, however, i have no problem not vaping in the car with the minions. The penalty here is a fair bit steeper than $100
When it was introduced the penalty was
The maximum penalty for an individual breaking the new law is five penalty units ($584.10) with an infringement penalty (on the spot fine) of two penalty units ($233.64).
Source > News
The current value of a penalty unit is $158.57 so the penalty now is $792.85 and $475.51 which sure as shit is a lot of coin so it is not something I am considering doing.
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Hummm, Could see:
Not a bad law on the surface.
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I don’t know about other states, but it is illegal in Washington and Oregon to smoke or vape with minors 17 and under in a car. But they can’t enforce it unless the vehicle is pulled over for an unrelated violation. I think it’s $250 for first offense and $500 for second?
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