The Independent : reported that Oregon becomes fifth state to raise smoking age to 21

Oregon has raised its smoking age to 21, lending more momentum to a national movement that has now registered wins in five states. Kate Brown signed legislation bumping the age at which people can buy both traditional tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to 21. It marks the latest victory for public health advocates who have already seen the smoking age boosted to 21 in California and in Hawaii, overriding the objections of the tobacco industry. New Jersey and Maine both approved legislation earlier this year bumping the age to 21. Substantially fewer middle and high school students are smoking cigarettes, according to the CDC, while e-cigarette use among high school students ticked up between 2011 and 2016.

Senate passes bill to raise smoking age to 21

The law aligns the legal age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products with that already established for alcohol and marijuana. SALEM — Oregon has become the third state to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. About 1,800 Oregon kids become smokers every year and an alarming 24 percent of Oregon's 11th-graders report using tobacco products. About 95 percent of adult smokers started smoking before age 21, according to the Cancer Action Network. Hawaii adopted an age 21 threshold in 2015, followed by California last year.

Oregon just became the 5th state to raise its smoking age to 21

Oregon has become the fifth state in the country to raise its smoking age to 21. A higher nationwide smoking age would save livesA 2015 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that raising the smoking age to 21 could prevent approximately 223,000 premature deaths among Americans born between 2000 and 2019. "If you raise [the smoking age] to 21, over time we think that's going to have a significant effect on separating these social networks."The drinking age saves lives tooRaising the smoking age lends itself to comparisons to the minimum legal age for alcohol. Indeed, several people on social media and Reddit immediately drew the comparison when Hawaii voted to hike its smoking age in 2015. Furthermore, the age policies for drinking and smoking have different goals: Raising the smoking age is supposed to deter people from smoking altogether by delaying their initiation, while raising the drinking age is supposed to stop people from drinking only until they're more responsible adults.


collected by :Lucy William

To follow all the new news about From Addiction to Recovery