NY COUNTY LAWMAKER EYES RAISING TOBACCO BUYING AGE TO 21

December 2, 2013

The Suffolk County legislator will introduce legislation in January to up the age adults can buy tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

​SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. – A Suffolk County Board of Health member wants to raise the age adults can buy tobacco and electronic cigarettes from 19 to 21, following in the footsteps ofNew York City’s similar change, the Times Beacon Record reports. Suffolk County Legislator William Spencer will put forth his measure next month.

The health board unanimously signed a letter to the Legislature that recommends increasing the tobacco purchase age to 21. “There will be civil libertarians that will obviously say you’re trampling on the rights of smokers,” said Spencer. “I think when it comes to young people, when it comes to hard scientific evidence that shows significant increase in risk with [regard] to addiction in the areas of the brain … I think we have a very compelling argument.”

Legislator John Kennedy Jr. has expressed his opposition to such a proposal because it’s “an overreach on the part of government to control or prohibit conduct that has previously been deemed legal. … There’s a lot of other conduct in this society that is authorized that ultimately could wind up having health ramifications as well. At some point, government has to allow citizens and human beings to make their own choices when it comes to what they want to engage in.”

On the flip side, Legislator Kara Hahn views such a potential law as really affecting everyone. “From the secondhand smoke perspective, from a health insurance cost perspective, from a public health cost perspective, there’s a tremendous resource drain on society because of smoking. And I would venture to say that most smokers who are smokers now probably wished they’d never started,” she said.