http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-m … story.htmlens and young adults are likely to stop smoking — or never start — if they have to ask those 21 and older to buy cigarettes for them.
That's the premise of research that supports a new plan put forth by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco.
Experts say the approach is gaining traction around the country after a recent study estimated such laws would discourage smoking at an age when many people first get addicted. Chicago would join a list of more than 100 cities nationwide, including Evanston, to raise the legal age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21.
...
Most states long ago set the legal tobacco age at 18, but a March 2015 study from the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., sparked a new look at the issue.
That study concluded that raising the minimum age to 21 would help delay when young adults and adolescents start using tobacco. Almost 90 percent of adult daily smokers say they began smoking before they were 19, according to the study.
Researchers said 21 as a minimum age would be particularly effective because young people who are unable to buy tobacco are most likely to get the products from friends and peers. It is less likely a 21-year-old would be in the same social circles as high school or middle school students, and thus able to provide cigarettes, according to the report.
The researchers' model predicts that if all states immediately raised the minimum age to 21, there would be a 12 percent decrease in tobacco use among today's teenagers by the time they become adults.
Raising the age makes sense. I support this. If it is combined with increased fines on places that sell smokes to under 21 people it could be effective. Sure teens will still manage to get cigarettes but we should do more to protect young people from a deadly habit when they are young. Especially since their brains aren't fully developed until they are 21.
