In less than a month, three states – Maine, New Jersey and Oregon – have enacted laws that prohibit the selling of cigarettes and other tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.
Smoking rates have declined in recent years, but the use of cigarettes by children and teens remains unacceptably high.
In 2015, 25% of high school students reported using tobacco products, and studies show that nearly 90% of adult smokers started smoking before they turned 18.
Raising the cigarette sales age to 21 will help reduce these statistics.
“High school is a prime time for youth to begin a tobacco addiction, but we know that if kids don’t pick up a cigarette during these vulnerable teenage years that most of them will never start smoking later,” said Christopher Friend, the Oregon Government Relations Director at ACS CAN.
If the sales age was raised to 21 nationally, it’s estimated there would be 223,000 fewer premature deaths, according to an Institute of Medicine report.
“Tobacco continues to claim too many lives and is the leading cause of preventable death. [Raising the sales age] will not only save lives, but will cut health care costs,” said Brian Shott, the New Jersey Government Relations Director at ACS CAN.
In Maine, the state legislature overcame a veto by Governor LePage to pass the measure.
The three states join California, Hawaii and over 260 cities and counties who have already raised their cigarette sales age to 21.
