SOUTHERN INDIANA — Congressional lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are expected to support increasing the legal age to buy tobacco in a vote this week.
In a morning press conference, U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, announced that legislators have agreed to include a provision in a year-end government funding package that would prevent anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. The push to raise the current age of 18 has been a bipartisan effort taken up by both chambers of Congress in recent months, and now looks to be on its way to the books.
“We’ve got perhaps the most important public health measure in place that is achievable in this political atmosphere,” Young said. “It’s going to save a lot of lives, a lot of money, improve the productivity of our workers, ensure that our military is more ready. [It has] many broad implications, but it’s especially important to the state of Indiana in light of tobacco usage in our state and the high rates of teen tobacco use.”
Young has played a role in spearheading the initiative. In April, he introduced the Tobacco to 21 Act with fellow U.S. Senators Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah. A similar bill was also put forward in the House of Representatives.
Contents of the legislation later made its way through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee as a component of the Lower Health Care Costs Act in June. Now, some of those provisions are set to be included in a larger congressional spending package agreed upon by the Senate and House on Tuesday.
The legislation, Young said, will help prevent young people from developing tobacco addiction — often through the use of e-cigarettes — at an early age, an increasingly common occurrence in recent years.
“In fact, over a oneyear period from 2017 to 2018, we saw almost a 40 percent increase year-onyear the number of middle school students who had access to tobacco products,” he said. “High school students, the number was even more alarming. It was 80 percent, so I knew that we had to act...”
Statistics show that smoking-related diseases kill roughly 1,300 people a day in the United States. According to the National Academy of Medicine, raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products could decrease that total by 12 percent.
Rates of tobacco and e-cigarette use exceed the national average in Indiana, both in adult and teenage populations. Millions of middle and high school students in the country often develop such habits before the age of 21, which has been a cause of concern for many.
“I spend a lot of time meeting with students, teachers and faculty at schools across Southern Indiana, and reducing tobacco usage among teenagers is often cited by faculty and school administrators as the number one issue affecting the well-being of our Hoosier youth,” Ninth District U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, R-Indiana, said.
Two versions of the legislation were presented in the Senate, including the one co-sponsored by Young and another introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Tim Kaine, D-Virginia.
Though very similar to each other, the latter was eventually chosen to be included in the spending package. The legislation does not include a mandate that states change their laws to match the age threshold, but they will be required to ensure those under the age of 21 are not sold tobacco products by retailers. States that fail to do so risk losing eligibility for block grant funding.
“Our legislation would indeed come with consequences,” Young said. “When you’re talking about protecting middle school and high school students, there needs to be consequences to incentivize people to proper behavior.”
Increasing the age at the state-level has been discussed in Indiana for years. Though it has yet to come to fruition, Washington, D.C., and 19 other states — including neighboring states Illinois and Ohio — have already implemented such measures.
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