Maya Hall
Lantern Staff
On Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, Congress passed a bill that was signed by President Trump to raise the legal age to smoke or vape from 18 to 21 years old. The legislation was signed to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and is believed to save many lives across the country.
Pros to the change in law: Tobacco has many side effects, the majority of them being negative. It is clinically proven that tobacco is harmful to your body in multiple ways, such as putting individuals who smoke or use tobacco and nicotine products at a high risk of having lung and heart diseases, problems with the immune system, chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis and even cancer.
When younger individuals use these products, they are further endangering themselves to develop early-onset side effects of those conditions. Raising the legal tobacco use age to 21 is an easy way to benefit the safety and health of young individuals.
The legal age for buying alcoholic products is set at 21 years of age as well and most likely for a good reason. At 18 years of age, the human brain is still not fully developed, and products such as alcohol and tobacco are harmful to the brain. So it is reasonable to say that it is safer for people to hold off on using the products until they are 21 to ensure their body and brain is mature enough for them.
Cons to the change in law: Besides the intent of this law is to save young lives, there are a few cons to it once it is passed. There is already a significant number of people who use tobacco products under the age of 21, but once the new law is put into action, they will not be able to buy those products any longer.
People between the ages of 18 and 21 who are already accustomed to using those products are now in a sticky situation because nicotine is a known addictive substance so that makes it nearly impossible for individuals to quit it instantly. With the new law change, they themselves will not be able to buy it, so this poses a problem to those people and some may most likely find ways to obtain it illegally.
The charges of underage smoking and vaping against people under the age of 21 will then rise, and there would still be individuals finding their way around the law to get the products they want and crave.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about this new law. I personally do not use any sort of tobacco or nicotine products and do not intend to, so it does not necessarily affect me. It does seem unreasonable that at 18 years of age people are considered a legal adult and can enlist or be drafted into the U.S. Army, putting their life at risk for their country. But now these legal adults do not have the right to buy alcohol or tobacco products until the age of 21. What would be best is to have all these issues set to the same age, decreasing the amount of arguments made about them.