Smoking age stays the same

County nixes plan to increase it to 21

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » Saratoga County supervisors are no longer considering a local law that would have banned the sale of tobacco products to persons under 21.

The proposal was especially designed to curb smoking among young people, who are especially vulnerable to habit-forming cigarette use.

At a Public Health Committee meeting, in September, supervisors tentatively scheduled a public hearing on the law for Oct. 11, but it was later canceled and won’t be rescheduled.

“A number of us, while it sounded like a good idea on the surface, had real concerns about enforcement,” said committee chairman and Malta Supervisor Vincent DeLucia.

A local county law would be the responsibility of Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. Clifton Park Supervisor Philip Barrett, said at last month’s meeting, that the sheriff’s department is already overburdened with a growing heroin and opioid epidemic. This should be the county’s main focus, instead of raising the legal age for smoking, he said.

DeLucia, while pointing out that smoking isn’t healthy, added that cigarettes and tobacco are legal products.

“Who are we to start over-regulating people’s lives for 18-, 19and 20-year-olds?” he said. “There just wasn’t much support for moving forward with it.”

“Who are we to start over-regulating people’s lives for 18-, 19- and 20-yearolds? There just wasn’t much support for moving forward with it.” — Malta Supervisor Vincent DeLucia

At the September meeting, county Public Health Director Catherine Duncan praised efforts to get the law adopted.

“This is something we’ve wanted for a long time,” she said. “It would be fabulous.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently named Saratoga County the state’s healthiest county for the second straight year, 2015 and 2016. So banning cigarette sales to people under 21 would be a way to continue that track record, Duncan said.

However, she declined comment Friday about the supervisors’ decision not to pursue a local law.

Ballston Supervisor Tim Szczepaniak had spearheaded efforts to get the law adopted.

Similar laws have already been approved in New York City, Albany and Schenectady counties, and Warren County is moving forward on it. Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Cortland, Orange, Suffolk and Sullivan counties have also prohibited sale of tobacco products to people younger than 21.

But Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Kinowski, of Stillwater, said raising the age for tobacco use should be done at the state level, not the county. It’s too easy for people to simply go to a neighboring county, where the age limit is still 18, he said.