KY lawmakers stick with bill to require licensing, stiffer penalties for smoking retailers
A bill that would crack down on Kentucky stores illegally selling tobacco and vape products to minors could be headed toward the finish line in the 2025 General Assembly despite setbacks in past legislative sessions.
The House Licensing and Occupations Committee on Wednesday made minor changes to Senate Bill 100 and sent it to the full House, which voted 82-to-11 to pass it. The bill now returns to the Senate, which must consider the changes made in the House.
Despite initial concerns by health groups who worried the bill could be gutted, the House committee left intact two key components: a requirement that smoking product retailers be licensed by the newly created Kentucky Division of Tobacco, Nicotine and Vapor Licensing, and stiffer penalties for scofflaw retailers who break the rules.
The Herald-Leader reported in 2023 that over a recent two-year period, state inspectors cited at least 114 retailers multiple times for selling tobacco and vape products to minors. They usually only issued warning letters or, in some cases, small fines that were a tiny fraction of the scofflaws’ annual revenue.
Unlike alcohol retailers, smoking product retailers in Kentucky aren’t licensed, which means that state inspectors don’t know where all of them operate or how many even exist.
It also means the state has no easy way to shut them down when they repeatedly break the law.
That will change if the Senate bill becomes law, said its sponsor, state Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon.
“This bill is after the bad actors,” Higdon told the House committee Wednesday.
“We have a lot of good retailers,” Higdon said. “In fact, probably 99.8% of the retailers in Kentucky run good businesses and follow the rules and would never sell to an under-aged person. But this bill is after the bad actors. This bill has teeth.”
Federal law prohibits the sale of smoking products to people under age 21. But Kentucky high school students have testified to the legislature that smoking — and particularly vaping — remains common among their peers because the products are so easy to purchase at local stores.
Under Higdon’s amended bill, fines for selling smoking products to minors would escalate, starting with a $100 fine to the clerk for a first offense; ramping up to bigger fines, as high as $1,000 for the store owner; and ending with the loss of the retail license for the fourth offense.
Failing to register a retail outlet with the state would start as a misdemeanor for the first two offenses and become a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, for the third offense.
The legislature last year dropped retail licensing language from House Bill 11, which ended up focusing on the removal of most flavored vape products from store shelves. That bill took effect on Jan. 1 after a vape industry lawsuit challenging it was dismissed in Franklin Circuit Court.
The House committee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve Higdon’s bill, with no opposition. The Senate voted 33-to-3 to pass it on Feb. 26.
Kentucky Youth Advocates, a nonprofit advocacy group, praised the House committee after the vote for keeping the retail licensing requirement in the bill.
“By establishing a division within (the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) to license retailers, conduct annual compliance checks and outline penalties for those selling to kids, this legislation would give Kentucky the chance to make a real difference in outcomes for kids,” the group said in a prepared statement.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM.
