Supports raising legal tobacco age

I support increasing the legal age of access (LEA) to tobacco and nicotine delivery devices to the age of 21.

Following a cue from Hawaii, a state that just adopted the increased LEA, the Montana legislature ought to pass similar legislation. The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act granted broad autonomy over tobacco products but it prohibited the FDA from establishing a national MLA above 18 years of age.

It is worthwhile to look at the 2015 study by The Institute of Medicine a division of the prestigious National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. That group was tasked with studying the impact of raising the age for access to tobacco. The modelling projects that if the MLD were raised to 21 nationwide, there would be approximately 223,000 fewer premature deaths, 50,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer and 4.2 million fewer years of life lost for those born between 2000 and 2019. According to the organization Tobacco Free Kids, estimated smoking caused health costs and lost productivity total $19.16 per pack of cigarettes.

Research shows that kids often turn to older friends and classmates as a source of tobacco products. Raising the sale age to 21 would reduce the likelihood that a high school student will be able to legally purchase such products for an underage friends.

There are ancillary issues associated with tobacco legislation. For example, if you’re of the ages of 19 or 20 years old upon the enactment date and already addicted, should some sort of accommodations be made? Should vaping be included in such legislation if it doesn’t deliver nicotine? Should tobacco taxes be increased — currently 1.70 per pack, about average in the U.S. Should fines for those selling or providing tobacco/nicotine products to underage be reviewed?

My priority will be preventing our youth and adolescents from the scourge of nicotine addiction primarily associated with tobacco products through sound legislative. 95 percent of adult smokers began smoking before they turned 21. It seems that the logical choice is to target tobacco products and strictly limit access to such products until a person is 21 years of age. At that point maybe the lure has been tempered by maturity and healthy fear.

— Dave Fern is a Democrat  candidate for HD 5