MINNEAPOLIS -- On January 1, 2016, the legal age to purchase and use tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, will increase to 21 years old. This increase in the legal age is a result of a bill passed by Hawaii’s legislature to raise the legal age from 18 to 21 and Hawaii Governor David Ige signed the bill into law last week. Hawaii becomes the first state to raise the legal age to 21; Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah previously raised the legal age for tobacco to 19 years old.
The Hawaii law provides that it is unlawful to “sell or furnish a tobacco product in any shape or form, or an electronic smoking device, to a person under twenty-one years of age.” This means that neither retailers nor any other person are allowed to sell or give a tobacco product to a person under 21 years old. The new law does allow a person who is under age 21 to sell tobacco products to people 21 and older as a part of their employment responsibilities.
Also, the new law provides that any person under 21 years of age that buys or uses tobacco products is subject to a fine of $10 for a first offense and $50 for each subsequent violation or be required to perform between 48 and 72 hours of community service. At the same time, a retailer or person who either sells or provides tobacco products to someone under 21 is subject to $500 fine for a first violation, and a fine of between $500 and $2,000 for each subsequent violation.
Finally, the law does not include a grandfather clause which means that individuals who are currently of adult age, those that are 18, 19 or 20 years old, will not be allowed to purchase or use tobacco products without violating the new law.
Others states with legal age bills still pending include California (age 21), Massachusetts (age 21), New Jersey (age 21), New York (age 21), Oregon (age 21), Rhode Island (age 21), Vermont (age 21) and Washington (age 19). Several other states had legal age bills fail due to adjournment of the legislature including Iowa (age 19), Texas (age 19) and Utah (age 21).
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