California Changes Legal Smoking Age to 21
Just last week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed multiple bills, elevating the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. He also placed restrictions on smoking areas and sales of e-cigarettes. Research shows that when adolescents begin smoking at a young age, they are more likely to experiment with more addicting substances. Thus, the passing of these bills is significant as far as prevention goes.
Interestingly, although the new laws require consumers to be 21-years-old or older to be able to purchase cigarettes, a stipulation was added to allow military personnel 18 and over to be able to purchase them. As for e-cigarettes and other vapor products like hookahs and pipe tobacco, they will now be regulated like other tobacco products in California. Further, all of the products will now have to come in child-resistant packaging in hopes of reducing the amount of poisonings in young children that has been on the rise since the popularity of e-cigarettes has increased. Also, companies will also have to provide a list of ingredients in the vapors and have warnings on their packages and on their ads.
This past January, Hawaii was the first state to raise the legal smoking age. Since then, many large cities – including New York and San Francisco have followed suit. Changing the legal smoking age in California to 21 will not only help to prevent future addictions to other substances, but also will help prevent premature deaths and lung cancer.