Legal Smoking Age Raised in California

A new measure signed last month in California would raise the legal smoking age from eighteen to twenty-one in the hopes of deterring eighteen- to twenty-year-olds from adopting the habit.

The law will go into effect on June 6, and will fine any company selling e-cigarettes, tobacco products, and chewing tobacco to persons under age twenty-one. California Governor Jerry Brown signed this and four other motions to restrict tobacco use in his state (Ackerman, 2016).

The Institute of Medicine states that “raising the tobacco-buying age to twenty-one would deter 15 percent of people between the ages of eighteen and twenty from beginning to use these products—since 90 percent of regular smokers begin using before age nineteen” (Ackerman, 2016).

The only exception to the rule is military personnel, for whom the legal tobacco-using and purchasing age will remain eighteen. California is the second state to raise the legal smoking age.

References

Ackerman, M. (2016). California raises legal smoking age to twenty-one. Retrieved from https://www.thefix.com/california-raises-legal-smoking-age-21