Sale of tobacco by mail.

Existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale distribution of tobacco products, as defined, directly or indirectly to any person under 21 years of age through the United States Postal Service or through any other public or private postal or package delivery service. Existing law requires a person selling or distributing tobacco products directly to a consumer through the United States Postal Service or by another postal or package delivery service to comply with specified age-verification policies, including, if the customer or recipient's age cannot be verified in another manner, requiring the customer or recipient to submit an age-verification kit containing a copy of a valid form of government identification. Existing law includes a passport as a valid form of government identification. Existing law authorizes enforcing agencies to assess civil penalties for violations of the STAKE Act. This bill would require a passport used as government identification to be valid and would provide that, if a customer or recipient provides an identification card issued by the United States Armed Forces as proof of age, and the identification lacks a physical description, but includes date of birth and a photograph, further proof of age is not required.