Tougher Line With Tobacco Smoking As State of Hawaii Raises Legal Smoking Age

by Benson Agoha | Woolwich

* Hawaii Islands, United States of America. (Credit: via Wiki)

US State of Hawaii is raising the legal smoking age to 21 from Saturday 2nd, January 2016. It makes it the first of America's 51 States to enact such law, according to the INQUISITR.

Nor is the new law exempting electronic cigs. In fact the new law is for traditional as well as electronic cigarettes.

Hawaii is considered by many as being the healthiest state in the U.S. and the first in the country to enact such legislation signed into law in June by Governor David Ige.

It aims to make it more cumbersome for young adults to pick up a cigarette and potentially develop a smoking habit. Public health officials say the ban will lead to longer, healthier lives.

“In Hawaii, about one in four students in high school try their first cigarette each year, and one in three who get hooked will die prematurely,” said Lola Irvin, an administrator with the chronic disease prevention and health promotion division of the Hawaii Department of Health.

* Teenage smokers will now have to turn 21 before they can
legally buy cigarettes in Hawaii. (Credit: via Wiki).

According to CBS News, the Hawaii smoking age law includes electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, as well and, according to health authorities, e-cigarettes were included in the rule as an increasing number of high school and middle school students are experimenting with the smoking devices. The number of e-cigs used by high school students increased to 22 percent in 2015, while an estimated 12 percent of middle school children smoke them.

In Britain, until 1 October 2007, people in the UK could legally buy tobacco products. But the minimum age is 18 in order to buy cigarettes, rolling tobacco, cigarette papers and other smoking products.

Most teenagers get around this by enlisting the help of other kids who have attained the legal age, but if a child is under 16 and a police officer catches him/her smoking in a public place, they have a duty to confiscate the cigarettes from the teenager.

* E-cigs are also included in the new rule introduced in Hawaii.(Credit: via Wiki)