Tobacco purchase age rising to 21
Legislature approves higher minimum; Hein, a supporter, expected to sign bill
As of Jan. 1, 2019, it will be illegal in Ulster County to sell cigarettes or other tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.
County legislators Tuesday night approved unanimously, and without discussion, a local law raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products in the county from 18 to 21. The action was met by applause from antismoking advocates who attended the Legislature’s meeting.
Caitlin O’Brien, government relations director at the American Heart Association, called the bill “lifesaving and common-sense legislation.”
“It stops young adults from ever picking up their first tobacco product,” she said before the vote.
The bill now goes to County Executive Michael Hein, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Hein called on lawmakers in 2017 and again this year to approved the legislation, saying the move would reduce the number of tobacco-related deaths and move Ulster closer to becoming a healthier county.
When the law takes effect, Ulster County will join more than a dozen localities statewide — including Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Albany counties — that have raise the minimum age for tobacco purchases, according to the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, which is championing “Tobacco 21,” a national effort aimed at raising the age to 21 nationwide.
In Dutchess County, the Legislature’s Government Services Committee last month defeated a proposed local law that would have raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products in that county to 21.
In April, more than a dozen anti-smoking advocates and others called on Ulster County lawmakers to raise the minimum purchase age, saying the move would help reduce the possibility that today’s youths will become tomorrow’s adult smokers.
But local convenience store owners, as well as the head of the trade group that represents neighborhood convenience stores, have said the bill is “based on a flawed assumption” that the law would prevent youth smoking. They also said the law would cause businesses to “forfeit legitimate sales.”
In 2017, Ulster County lawmakers voted to ban the use of e-cigarettes anywhere on county property where the use of other tobacco products is banned, but it declined to advance a law to raise the minimum purchase age.
Also that year, then-Legislator TJ Briggs, D-Ellenville, introduced a resolution that would have made it illegal for people under the age of 18 to possess cigarettes. He withdrew the proposal, however, when it became clear it would not pass.
Local convenience store owners, as well as the head of the trade group that represents neighborhood convenience stores, have said the bill is “based on a flawed assumption” that the law would prevent youth smoking.