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Virginia GOP leaders, concerned about the rise in vaping by teens, want to increase the state’s minimum age to purchase or possess tobacco products and electronic cigarettes from 18 to 21.

Del. Chris Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, a physician, and Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, have introduced identical bills in the House and Senate that would bar people under the age of 21 from buying or possessing tobacco products, nicotine vapor products, and alternative nicotine products.

Speaker of the House Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, backs the effort, and Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, is a patron of Norment’s Senate bill.

Six states have raised the tobacco age to 21, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids — California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon, Hawaii and Maine.

Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc. said last fall that it would pull some of its e-cigarette products from the market after public health officials warned of a rising “epidemic” of underage use of nicotine delivery devices.

The nation’s largest tobacco company said then, for the first time, that it would back federal legislation to set the minimum legal age to buy tobacco products at 21. The current federal minimum age is 18.