§ 7-141. Definitions.

Dealer shall mean every person, firm, corporation, or association of persons, except retailers as defined herein, who receives the product from the manufacturer of tobacco and/or tobacco products for distribution, for sale, for use, or for consumption in the State of Mississippi.

Retailer shall mean every person, company, corporation, partnership, business association, joint venture, estate, trust, or any other combination acting as a unit or legal entity other than a wholesale dealer as defined in Miss. Code Ann. Section 97-32-2 (Supp. 1998), whose business is that of selling merchandise at retail, who shall sell or offer for sale tobacco and/or tobacco products to the consumer.

School property shall mean any public or private school building or bus, public or private school campus, grounds, recreational area, athletic field, or other property owned, used, or operated by any local school board, school board of trustees, or board of directors for the administration of any public or private education institution. School property, for purposes of this division, shall not include any public or private junior college, college, or university, or any sixteenth section school land or lieu land on which there is not located a school building, school campus, recreational area, or athletic field.

School sponsored activity shall mean any school sponsored event for athletic, academic, musical, social, or entertainment purpose, attended by students, including any transportation to and from such event provided by the school, regardless of whether such activity is held on school property.

Seller shall mean any natural person, company, corporation, firm, partnership, organization, or other legal entity who sells, dispenses, distributes, or issues tobacco and/or tobacco products for commercial purposes.

Student shall mean any student of a public or private elementary, middle, junior high, or high school, regardless of whether such person is eighteen (18) years of age or older.

Tobacco and/or tobacco product shall mean any substance that contains tobacco, including but not limited to, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, snuff, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, smoking tobacco, smokeless tobacco, spit tobacco, or tobacco spittle.

Use and/or possession shall mean the smoking of any tobacco and/or tobacco product, the possession of lighted cigarette, cigar, or other tobacco product, the chewing, oral consumption, spitting, inhaling, or other ingestion of any tobacco and/or tobacco product, the possession of any container of tobacco spittle, or the possession of any tobacco paraphernalia, such as rolling papers, pipes, or any other item used in the smoking, chewing, oral consumption, spitting, inhaling, or other ingestion of any tobacco and/or tobacco product.

Wholesaler shall mean dealers whose principal business is that of wholesale dealer or jobber, who is known to the retail trade as such, and whose place of business is located in Mississippi or in a state which affords reciprocity to wholesalers domiciled in Mississippi, who shall sell any taxable tobacco and/or tobacco product to retail dealers only for the purpose of resale.

(Ord. No. 2162, § 1, 3-2-99)