The minimum purchasing age for tobacco in the United States before Decemer 20, 2019 varied by state and territory. Since December 20, 2019, the smoking age in all states and territories is 21 under federal law which was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The de jure minimum age remains 18 in some states, e.g. the federal law is not enforced in Arizona, [1] and in Alaska the minimum age in 19; in 2022 the governor vetoed a senate law to raise it to 21 [2] (since the law also raised taxes).
In the United States, laws regarding the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products have been made by states, territories, the District of Columbia and the federal government. Before 1992, states had the sole power to enforce their own minimum ages. These laws first appeared in the late nineteenth century, with New Jersey becoming the first state to set a minimum purchase age of sixteen in 1883. [3] By 1920, around half of states had their minimum purchase age of twenty-one and some simply prohibited "minors" (ages 14–24) from purchasing. [3] During the 1920s, due to tobacco industry lobbying, the minimum ages were lowered across the U.S. and ranged from sixteen to nineteen. [3] By 1939, all states had age restrictions for tobacco. [3] However, these laws kept changing throughout the 1950s, with Maryland repealing its age restrictions. The American Cancer Society recommended the minimum age of eighteen in 1963, the American Medical Association recommended twenty-one in 1985, [4] and the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General recommended nineteen or twenty-one. [5]
State tobacco laws partly changed in 1992 under the George H.W. Bush administration when Congress enacted the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act, whose Synar Amendment forced states to create their own laws to have a minimum age of eighteen to purchase tobacco or else lose funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. [6] The amendment was passed in response to the teenage smoking rates. [7] All states raised their ages to either eighteen or nineteen by 1993. In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration enacted regulations making the federal minimum age eighteen, [8] though later the U.S. Supreme Court later terminated the FDA's jurisdiction over tobacco, ending its enforcement practices and leaving it up to states. [9]
In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was enacted under the Barack Obama administration, once again setting a federal minimum age of eighteen and prohibited the FDA from setting a higher minimum purchase age. [10] From 1993 to 2012, the smoking age in all states was either eighteen or nineteen. In 2005, the town of Needham, Massachusetts, became the first jurisdiction in the country to raise the minimum purchase age to 21. [11] Between 2012 and 2015, local municipalities across the U.S. began raising their smoking ages to twenty-one, with Hawaii becoming the first state to raise its age to twenty-one in 2015. [12] This began the shift in states eventually raising their ages to twenty-one due to the teenage vaping epidemic. [13] By 2019, eighteen states and the District of Columbia had their minimum purchase ages at twenty-one, thirty states had their ages at eighteen, and two had it at nineteen. On December 20, 2019, with the enactment of the Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2020 signed by President Donald Trump, the federal smoking age was raised to twenty-one by changing the minimum purchase age in the 1992 Synar Amendment. [14] The United States Department of Defense followed, raising the age to purchase tobacco to twenty-one on military bases in the U.S. and abroad. [15]
In 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a 2020 bylaw passed by the town of Brookline, which enforces a lifetime ban on the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2000, the first of its kind in the United States. [16]
State/territory | 1883–1950: First MLAs enacted | 1950–1970: Increased marketing towards youth | 1970–1992: MLA reforms | 1992–2009: Synar Amendment enacted | 2009–2019: Tobacco Control Act enacted | 2019–present: Tobacco 21 enacted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | None [17] (–1896) | 21 (1896–1976) | 19 [lower-alpha 1] (1976–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 2] (2021–) | ||
Alaska | ? (–1959) | 18 [lower-alpha 3] (1959–?) 16 [lower-alpha 4] (?–1988) | 19 [lower-alpha 5] (1988–) | |||
American Samoa | 18 [lower-alpha 6] (?–) | |||||
Arizona | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 7] (1988–) | ||||
Arkansas | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 8] (1988–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 9] (2019–) | |||
California | 16 [lower-alpha 10] (?–1911) | 18 (1911–2016) | 21 [lower-alpha 11] (2016–) | |||
Colorado | ? (–1988) | None [lower-alpha 12] (c. 1960s–70s) | 18 [lower-alpha 13] (1970s–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 14] (2020–) | ||
Connecticut | None (–1902) 16[ citation needed ](1902–1987) | 18 (1987–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 15] (2019–) | |||
Delaware | ? (–1953) | 17[ citation needed ](1953–1992) | 18 (1992–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 16] (2019–) | ||
District of Columbia | 16 [32] (?–1990) | 18 (1990–2016) | 21 [33] (2016–) | |||
Florida | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 17] (1988–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 18] (2021–) | |||
Georgia | ? (–1987) | 17[ citation needed ](1987–1993) | 18 (1993–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 19] (2020–) | ||
Guam | 18 (?–2018) | 21 [36] (2018–) | ||||
Hawaii | 15 [lower-alpha 20] (?–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 21] (1988–2016) | 21 [37] }} (2016–) | |||
Idaho | 18 (?–2022) | 21 [lower-alpha 22] (2022–) | ||||
Illinois | 18 (?–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 23] (2019–) | ||||
Indiana | ? (–1980) | 16[ citation needed ](1980–1987) 18 (1987–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 24] (2020–) | |||
Iowa | 16 [21] (–1934) 21 (1934–1964) | 18 (1964–) | 21 [lower-alpha 25] (2020–) | |||
Kansas | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 26] (1988–2023) | 21 [lower-alpha 27] (2023–) | |||
Kentucky | None[ citation needed ](–1990) 16 [32] (1990–1992) | 18 (1992–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 28] (2020–) | |||
Louisiana | ? (–1988) | None [17] (1988–1991) 18 [32] (1991–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 29] (2021–) | |||
Maine | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 30] (1988–2018) | 21 [46] (2018–) | |||
Maryland | 16 [32] (–1989) | 18 (1989–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 31] (2019–) | |||
Massachusetts | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 32] (1988–2018) | 21 [48] (2018–) | |||
Michigan | ? (–1988) | 17 [lower-alpha 33] (?–1988) 18 (?–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 34] (2020–) | |||
Minnesota | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 35] (?–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 36] (2020–) | |||
Mississippi | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 37] (?–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 38] (2020–) | |||
Missouri | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 39] (?–) | ||||
Montana | None [17] (–1993) | 18 [32] (1993–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 40] (2020–) | |||
Nebraska | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 41] (1988–2019) 19 (Jan-Sep 2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 42] (2020–) | |||
Nevada | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 43] (1988–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 44] (2021–) | |||
New Hampshire | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 45] (1988–?) 19 [lower-alpha 46] (?–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 47] (2020–) | |||
New Jersey | None (–1883) 16 [lower-alpha 48] (1883–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 49] (–2006) 19 [lower-alpha 50] (2006–2017) | 21 [57] (2017–) | |||
New Mexico | None (–1988) | 18 (?–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 51] (2020–) | |||
New York | ? (–1886) 16 [lower-alpha 52] (1886–?) | 18 [lower-alpha 53] (1988–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 54] (2019–) | |||
North Carolina | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 55] (1988–) | ||||
North Dakota | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 56] (1988–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 57] (2021–) | |||
Northern Mariana Islands | 18 [lower-alpha 58] (?–) | |||||
Ohio | ? (–1939) 18 [lower-alpha 59] (1939–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 60] (2019–) | ||||
Oklahoma | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 61] (1988–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 62] (2020–) | |||
Oregon | None [lower-alpha 63] (1955–1988) 18 [lower-alpha 64] (1988–2018) | 21 [67] (2018–) | ||||
Pennsylvania | ? (–1988) | 16 [lower-alpha 65] (1988–?) 18 [lower-alpha 66] (?–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 67] (2020–) | |||
Puerto Rico | 18 [lower-alpha 68] (?–) | |||||
Rhode Island | None (–1939) 16 [lower-alpha 69] (1939–?) | 18 [lower-alpha 70] (1988–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 71] (2021–) | |||
South Carolina | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 72] (1988–) | ||||
South Dakota | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 73] (1988–) | ||||
Tennessee | 21 [lower-alpha 74] (?–1970s) | 18 [lower-alpha 75] (1988–2021) | 21 [lower-alpha 76] (2021–) | |||
Texas | 16 [lower-alpha 77] (–1989) | 18 [lower-alpha 78] (1989–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 79] (2019–) | |||
United States Virgin Islands | 18 [lower-alpha 80] (?–) | |||||
Utah | 21 [lower-alpha 81] (?–1953) | 19 [lower-alpha 82] (1953–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 83] (2019–) | |||
Vermont | ? (–1988) 17 [lower-alpha 84] (1988–?) | 18 [lower-alpha 85] (?–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 86] (2019–) | |||
Virginia | ? (–1988) | 16 [lower-alpha 87] (1988–?) 18 [lower-alpha 88] (?–2019) | 21 [lower-alpha 89] (2019–) | |||
Washington | 18 [lower-alpha 90] (1901–1909) 21 [lower-alpha 91] (1909–1971) | 18 [lower-alpha 92] (1971–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 93] (2020–) | |||
West Virginia | ? (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 94] (1988–) | ||||
Wisconsin | None [17] (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 95] (?–) | ||||
Wyoming | None [17] (–1988) | 18 [lower-alpha 96] (?–2020) | 21 [lower-alpha 97] (2020–) | |||
Youth rights |
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