Rexburg repeals tobacco ordinance

The City of Rexburg’s tobacco ordinance, that tried to raise the legal age of purchasing tobacco products to 21, was repealed Wednesday night

During a city council meeting, members discussed that it was impracticality to have an ordinance that had no state or county laws to back it up.

“We did decide to repeal our previous ordinance until such time we can gain support from other government entities, county, and the state to be able to go after this issue more seriously, and give it more thought,” said the Mayor of Rexburg, Jerry Merrill.

This comes after the ordinance failing to make it out of committee during the legislative session.

Many city officials and were disappointed with the lack of support from county and state officials.

“We were very disappointed when they didn’t look at it more seriously,and give it more debate on the floor and the house and senate at the state level,” said Merrill. “We felt like at this point and time that it really wasn’t fair for our businesses and the city of Rexburg to be at a disadvantage, when someone can just drive across the street to a business that’s in the county and purchase these products.”

The council did vote to allow Merrill to draft a resolution asking the state to seriously think about raising the age during the next legislative session.

The ordinance was passed by the Rexburg city council back in February, and chose to not let it go into effect until July.