Law raises tobacco purchase age to 21

Sullivan County has made it illegal for persons under 21 years old to purchase tobacco products.

The new law was approved in an 8-1 vote Thursday after public comments from a dozen county residents. All but two supported the measure.

Legislature Chairman Luis Alvarez said the law will make it more difficult for teenagers to get tobacco products.

“If somebody is in high school and 16 years old and he can’t buy cigarettes, all he has to do is go to a friend who is 18, and you have a lot of [high school] kids who are 18 years old,” Alvarez said. “Now you have to jump it to somebody who is 21, and you are not going to see that person in school,”

When Alvarez was reminded that people under the new age limit could easily travel across the state line to Pennsylvania, where 18-year-olds can buy tobacco products, he said, “There is nothing we can do about that.”

The Sullivan County initiative comes against the background of the county being ranked next to last for the health of residents among the state’s 62 counties.

The annual Robert Wood Johnson nationwide report in March ranked Sullivan County’s health outcomes status as above only the Bronx.

The Ulster County Legislature has been considering a measure that would make it illegal for people under the age of 18 to possess tobacco products.

As proposed, the Ulster law would make it illegal, as of Jan. 1, 2018, for anyone under 18 to possess, use or distribute any tobacco products or electronic smoking devices. Offenders could be ticketed by local law enforcement.

The bill calls for a fine not to exceed $50 for each offense, up to 10 hours of community service or both for each offense. The proposed Ulster law also includes a provision to allow the minor to participate in a tobacco education program in lieu of the fine or community service.