[G]ov. Phil Scott says he is not opposed to raising Vermont’s legal smoking age to 21, and the state’s health commissioner on Thursday enthusiastically listed reasons why the change would benefit young people and boost public health.
The administration’s support – or, at least, its lack of opposition – to the cause known as “tobacco 21” led one key lawmaker to say momentum is growing for a proposal that has failed to get through the Legislature in the past.
“This has been an issue at the top of our list for a long time,” said Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden and chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
Efforts to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 most recently failed in 2017, when a bill didn’t get through the Senate after extensive debate. Opponents have raised personal liberty objections including the fact that 18-year-olds can vote and join the military.
But advocates, including the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, have continued to pursue the issue. Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, proposed a tobacco 21 bill in the House last month, and Lyons has introduced S.86 in the Senate.
The Senate bill proposes to raise the age for buying and using traditional cigarettes as well as other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes. Among the bill’s core arguments is, “the younger an individual is when he or she begins using tobacco, the more likely he or she will become addicted.”
In testimony Thursday before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine used that and other arguments to show the benefits of raising the smoking age.
“If we look at adult smokers, the majority of them – 90 to 95 percent – will tell you that they started before age 21,” Levine said. “Obviously, that’s at a time when the brain is most susceptible.”
Levine said minors often get tobacco and e-cigarettes from peers who are over 18. “It turns out that one of the powers of raising a tobacco purchase age to 21 is that you remove the social community” for obtaining tobacco, he said.
Levine said there is widespread support nationally – both among the general public and from health organizations – for raising the tobacco age to 21. Six other states have done it, including Maine and Massachusetts.
Those policy changes are all fairly recent, Levine said. “Initial results are promising, but at the same time, we can’t determine direct cause,” he said. “But they’re showing decreases in youth tobacco use.”
Levine also sought to poke holes in common arguments against raising the age for tobacco use. Though 18-year-olds can serve in the armed forces, Levine said the military is taking steps to reduce tobacco use among its ranks.
Also, Levine said less than 2 percent of tobacco sales are to 18- to 20-year-olds. “So the impact on merchants should not be that strong,” he said.
Additionally, Levine noted that the proposed age for purchasing marijuana — if the state creates a legalized market for the drug — would be 21. “Ensuring all substances are legal to purchase at the same age — 21 — would greatly simplify enforcement,” Levine said.
Levine stopped short of explicitly saying he supports S.86. Asked to clarify the commissioner’s stance, Health Department spokesperson Ben Truman said Levine was “providing the evidence relevant to the matter before the committee.”
“As a physician and as health commissioner, Dr. Levine joins the public health community in support of evidence-based public health efforts and policies that reduce youth tobacco use,” Truman said.
Lyons, however, said Levine’s arguments in favor of raising the age will be a “huge boost” for a “very significant public health initiative.” Echoing Levine, Lyons said she’s concerned that smoking can set the stage for other drug use.
“I think there’s a real awareness now with opioid addiction that we need to get to the root cause,” she said. “And the root cause is ensuring that our children don’t access drugs early on in their lives.”
The smoking-age debate may be changing in part due to increasing concern at the federal and state levels about youth use of e-cigarettes.
In a recent report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that “a considerable increase in e-cigarette use among U.S. youths, coupled with no change in use of other tobacco products during 2017-2018, has erased recent progress in reducing overall tobacco product use among youths.”
The governor last month announced his support for imposing a 92 percent wholesale tax on e-cigarettes as a way to address youth use of the devices. A bill that would levy that tax has passed the House.
Scott is less decisive on raising the smoking age. But on Thursday, he said he’s not standing in the way of the effort.
“I’m not opposed, but I’m not leading the charge on this,” Scott said. “We’ll see how it works its way through the Legislature.”
A recent legislative survey by students at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine shows that efforts to raise the tobacco age still may face headwinds.
Their report showed that, “while 87.9 percent of respondents indicated that addressing tobacco use in Vermont is somewhat or very important, but only 62.1 percent of respondents indicated that they were either somewhat or strongly in favor of enacting (tobacco 21) legislation.”