California Assembly OKs raising smoking age to 21

Buying cigarettes could soon become harder for young Californians.

Laws intended to keep a new generation from getting hooked on smoking passed the State Assembly on Thursday, raising the age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21. A second law intends to clearly defining electronic cigarettes as a tobacco product.

The bills head to the Senate for an expected vote next week, which if passed will go to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk for approval.

“It's a good day for California,” said Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, co-author of the bill to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco.

“If we can prevent people from smoking by making it a little harder to get tobacco - and by 21 making a decision not smoke - it will save a huge amount of money and lives,” he said.

A separate bill by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to ensure e-cigarettes are defined as tobacco products and that they fall under existing smoke-free laws, also was framed as way to reduce use by minors and save on health costs.

“Big Tobacco's assault on youth and taxpayers was dealt a major setback today when the Legislature came to the rescue of Californians,” Leno said in a prepared statement. “Tobacco-free habits save lives and billions of taxpayer healthcare dollars.”

If the new minimum age becomes law, e-cigarettes will also be prohibited for sale to anyone under 21.

On Thursday, the possibility of raising the minimum tobacco-buying age got mixed reactions in Santa Rosa.

“People under-age buy alcohol all the time,” said Julie Laffey, 50, who was about to smoke a cigarette outside her home on South E Street.

Laffey, who said she began smoking when she was 14, said it probably won't stop minors from smoking. “People will just buy it for them,” she said.

Across the street at Sam's Market, clerk Deben Shrestha estimated that 25 percent of the tobacco products he sells are to people between 18 and 21. But he expressed support for the new law that would raise the minimum age.

“That is very good,” he said, citing the health benefits that will ensue.

He said he started a decades-long smoking habit when he was 18, but managed to quit eight years ago.

Assemblyman Wood cited estimates that 90% of all smokers start before the age of 21.

He said parts of an adolescent's brain responsible for decision making and impulse control are not fully developed at age 18, causing young brains to be highly susceptible to the addictive properties of nicotine.

Leno said research shows e-cigarette use is climbing exponentially among young people who are drawn to the products' enticing flavors like cotton candy, bubble gum and chocolate.

He cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing e-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014.

Advocates for e-cigarettes, which allow users to simulate smoking by inhaling vaporized liquid nicotine, argue that it is safer than taking a burning substance into their lungs.

But Leno said the California Department of Public Health confirmed e-cigarettes emit at least 10 toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde, lead and nickel, found on the state's Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.

The argument for reducing tobacco use is increasingly made by citing not only the health impacts of smoking, but the costs to society.

Woods' legislation cited CDC statistics showing 42 million American adults currently smoke cigarettes and 480,000 people die annually from the effects of tobacco use - more than alcohol, murders, illegal drugs, AIDS, and motor vehicle accidents combined - making tobacco use the number one cause of preventable death in America.

Wood noted the University of California, San Francisco recently published a study estimating that Californians spend over $9.8 billion treating the effects of tobacco use every year, roughly $3.5 billion of which is billed directly to Medi-Cal.

Previous attempts to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco in California have typically died in committee with opposition from the tobacco industry lobby.

This time, Wood said there was no formal opposition to his bill, although tobacco lobbyists worked behind the scenes to try and make it fail.

The Assembly approved his legislation on a 46-26 vote. Leno's bill passed on a 52-21 vote.

“The only loser in this equation is the tobacco companies, and in my opinion, they have won for long enough,” Wood stated.

Wood served as Healdsburg mayor when the city in 2014 became the first in the state to pass a ban on the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21 years old. But Healdsburg later suspended the over-21 requirement after being threatened with litigation by a tobacco retailers association that argued only the state could raise the minimum age.

A tobacco retailers association said the issue was about personal rights, not just health.

Lawyers for the National Association of Tobacco Outlets noted that by the time a person is 18, he can serve in the military, vote, get married, be arrested and charged with a crime as an adult, and pay taxes.

Wood said his legislation would exempt sales of tobacco on military bases as a result of a compromise he made with some legislators who felt it wasn't fair that someone could enlist in the military but not buy a pack of cigarettes.

David Anderson, the retired Healdsburg physician who helped convince the Healdsburg City Council to raise the minimum age to 21, said Thursday the state law got its humble beginnings in Healdsburg.

He said it will save millions of dollars right away and cited a recent study that found there should be a drastic reduction in low birth-weight babies and premature deliveries related to smoking and usually paid for by Medi-Cal.

“This is champagne time!” he said of the likelihood the legislation will get final approval.

Hawaii is currently the only state where the minimum age to buy tobacco is 21, although some states require buyers to be 19.

More than 120 cities, mostly in Massachusetts and New Jersey, have passed laws over the past decade or so raising the minimum tobacco buying age to 21.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas.