A Food and Drug Administration report supports the idea of increasing the tobacco purchase age to 21 citing it would decrease early deaths and reduce the number of 15-to-17 year-olds who start smoking.
Only Congress can raise the minimum age but they did require the FDA to commission the report.
The Wall Street Journal says:
The report by a panel at the independent Institute of Medicine examined the impact of increasing the age to 19 on teenagers. The committee also looked at how raising the age to 21 would affect 18- to 20-year-olds, and how boosting it to 25 would affect 21- to 25-year-olds.
It concluded that increasing the age above 18 would most affect 15- to 17-year-olds, and found the impact of increasing the age to 21 “would be substantially higher than…19,” but the impact of raising it beyond 21 would be “considerably smaller.”
Some cities have already raised the age to purchase tobacco to 21 including New York City, Columbia, MO, Evanston, IL and about 50 towns in Massachusetts.
Once again you can die for your country at 18 but can’t enjoy a cigar until your 21. That would be the case if the Enemies of Pleasure get their way.
