Oswego reviews increasing fines for underage tobacco, marijuana use

Oswego village trustees continue to study the possibility of increasing the fines for students using tobacco and marijuana in order to deter their use and to compel the students to seek counseling.

The issue was discussed again during the March 5 Oswego Committee of the Whole meeting. Currently, the fine for violating the village’s tobacco and alternative products ordinance is $75 and the fine for violating the village’s cannabis and drug paraphernalia ordinance is $100.

The police department has recommended increasing the first time fine for both to $250. By increasing the fines, the police department hopes more students will choose a free counseling session.

“If they had to choose between a $250 violation or a free counseling session, we think more of them would choose the free counseling session,” Oswego Police Chief Jason Bastin had told trustees last month. “And so did the school district.”

Adults who sell tobacco products to minors also would face a $250 fine, Bastin said.

“Our tobacco enforcement stings do occasionally produce violations in which we issue an ordinance ticket to a clerk,” Bastin said. “Typically, the violators merely failed to check an ID, and we have not experienced situations in which clerks are knowingly selling tobacco to minors. We believe a $250 fine for a violator is ample.”

Trustees last month had asked the department to look at the fines of other municipalities.

“It ranges pretty widely from as little as $25 for a tobacco offense up to what we are looking at,” Bastin told trustees at the March 5 meeting.

Montgomery fines tobacco offenders $25 and does not have an ordinance regarding marijuana offenses. In Yorkville, the fine for violating the village’s tobacco ordinance is $75 and the fine for violating the village’s cannabis ordinance is $125.

Plano, Aurora and Plainfield all have $100 fines for tobacco offenses and $250 for marijuana offenses. Although some trustees last month said they would like to see the fines increased even more, the Oswego Police Department still is recommending the first time fine be increased to $250.