Mississippi House Passes 3rd-Party Age Verification Bill

The U.S. state of Mississippi’s House of Representatives Thursday passed legislation that would require sellers of any type of alternative nicotine and marijuana products and package retailers to have a third-party age verification service.

HB 976, authored by State Rep. Nick Bain (R), revises the provisions of law that regulate alternative nicotine products such as an electronic cigarette, any other product that consists of or contains nicotine that can be ingested into the body by chewing, smoking, absorbing, dissolving, inhaling or by any other means, according to Y’All Politics. The rules would include synthetic nicotine products.

The bill also amends Section 67-1-81 of Mississippi Code to, “require holders of a package retailer permit to have an independent, third-party age verification service available on the property of the location in which alcoholic beverages are sold; and for other related purposes.”

The legislation says that before selling alternative nicotine products, the person or business must verify that the individual is at least 21 years of age by performing an age verification through a third-party verification service that obtains the purchasers full name, date of birth, and residential address and compares the information available from public records to the personal information entered.

In accordance with national standards, the third-party verification system used must have at least a 95% accuracy rating in order to be in compliance with the identification requirements listed in the bill.

An amendment was added that would require medical marijuana dispensaries to be included in this bill.