McConnell introduces bill to make the legal smoking age 21

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday introduced a bill to raise the federal age for purchasing tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to 21, increasing the chances that Congress will clear a significant smoking-related bill for the first time since a major tobacco control law was enacted a decade ago.

The bill comes amid growing concerns about the youth use of e-cigarettes, which reached record levels in 2018. That marked a troubling reversal of declines in smoking traditional cigarettes.

Those worrisome trends prompted McConnell to introduce the bill, despite the important role that tobacco farming plays in the economy of his home state Kentucky, he said in a Senate floor speech Monday.

“I recognize that I might seem like an unusual candidate to lead this charge,” he said. But he argued that Kentucky farmers had the same interest as anyone else in making sure their children don’t become addicted to nicotine. “Youth vaping is a public health crisis,” he said.

The logic behind increasing the smoking age to 21 is that high school students are likely to know someone who is 18 who can legally purchase tobacco, but they are less likely to have friends who are 21.

The bill would make it illegal under federal law for retailers to sell tobacco products to anyone under age 21, and would essentially require states to enact their own laws raising the tobacco-purchasing age to 21 or risk not getting federal substance abuse grants starting in fiscal year 2021. A growing number of state legislatures have already been moving in this direction, with six state laws going into effect in July and two more in 2020 and 2021, bringing the total to 14.

“Raising the tobacco age to 21 is a critical part of our efforts to improve public health and keep tobacco products out of schools and away from our children,” the bill’s co-sponsor, Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia, said in a statement.

Tobacco giant Altria, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, and the company that makes the popular e-cigarette Juul both support raising the age to 21. The four-page bill does not contain provisions that help advance other aspects of the tobacco industry’s agenda, though.