Becca72 said, in part:

in the situation above the officer should have been able to ticket the 15 year old (if it's illegal for children to buy them and illegal for adults to supply children with them how did they legally obtain the butts??

What charge would you bring against the kid?

I don't understand (at least from the excerpt of your post above) that it's illegal for the kid to have them. (S)he is prohibited from buying them, but I don't know that (s)he is prohibited from receiving them from others. Remember, the burden of proof is on the prosecution as to who provided the cigs to the kid, and under what circumstances. May have been another kid.

Adults are prohibited from providing them to kids, but we don't know that that's how the kid got the cigs. Even if from an adult, as far as I can tell that's not an offense of the kid. Who knows, maybe the kid stole them. And how would you prove that if the kid clammed up?

Charge the kid with smoking? The premising post of this thread says that the kid was within the permitted smoking age.

Charge the kid with smoking in a car where there's a kid, when "the kid" is himself/herself?   Awwww, c'mmmmon!

Dave Oesterreich