EVANSTON, Ill. --In 2005, the Boston suburb of Needham, Mass., became the first local government to raise its tobacco purchase age from the nationally set minimum of 18 to 21. On Monday, Evanston, Ill. became the latest community to follow suit, joining the likes of New York City and more than 30 municipalities in Massachusetts.
The movement is spreading on the state level as well: the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has been encouraging states to increase the minimum tobacco purchase age for the past year, telling The Wall Street Journal that legislatures in Colorado and Hawaii have committed to proposing similar laws in the upcoming sessions.
Additionally, the New Jersey senate approved a proposal to increase the minimum age to 21 last June, with the house set to vote on the measure next year.
Although the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other proponents of such efforts argue that raising the minimum age will prevent young adults from smoking, critics point out that retail is not the only way young adults and minors access cigarettes.
"The old adage that minors routinely purchase cigarettes and tobacco products from retailers is no longer valid," NATO executive director Thomas A. Briant wrote in a CSP column on minimum age. "FDA retail compliance checks regularly demonstrate that retailers comply with the law and decline sales to underage youth minors an average of 95% of the time."
"Raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products is a solution that will not solve the problem of underage use of tobacco products," Briant continued. "The solution in large part relies on curbing the access of tobacco by minors from social sources and enabling adults."
Many lawmakers in Vermont, Utah and Colorado seemingly agreed--all three states voted down bills to raise the age to purchase tobacco products this year (although Colorado is expected to revisit the issue in 2015).
"Kids aren't dumb," Colorado Representative Jim Wilson (R) told the Associated Press. "They're going to get new friends at 21 to supply them."
Raising the minimum age to 21 on a state or local basis is further complicated by the fact that the national tobacco purchase age remains 18. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently looking at the impact raising the minimum purchase age to 21 or 25 would have on public health; but there is no timeframe on when--or if--the agency will rule on this matter.
Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS), pointed out that a variety of minimum purchase ages makes it significantly more difficult for retailers to remain compliant.
"As someone who has personally trained more than 5,000 retail personnel on the proper techniques for preventing underage sales, I can tell you that the more uniform and consistent the laws are, the easier it is for clerks and cashiers to remember and execute them," Calvin told CSP last year. "Having tobacco purchase ages of 18 in one jurisdiction, 19 in another and 21 in another breeds confusion, and confusion increases the risk of mistakes at the counter."
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