Right: How young is too young? Or should tobacco be denied altogether from those born after 2000, as has been seriously suggested.
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Background information
Background
The following information has been taken from the Wikipedia entry titled 'Smoking age'
The full text can be accessed at
The smoking age is the minimum legal age required to purchase or smoke tobacco products. Most countries have laws that restrict those below a minimum age from legally purchasing tobacco products. However, many of these countries do not require a minimum age for smoking in public. Most countries in the world have a legal smoking age of 18.
Numerous countries in Africa have a lower smoking age.
In Zambia and Djibouti it is 16. In Cameroon it is 15, as it is in Cape Verde, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau and South Sudan. In Lesotho, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Malawi it is 14.
The areas where the legal smoking age is above 18 are listed below.
Legal smoking age in the United States
The federal law requires states to have a minimum age of 18 years for sale/purchase of tobacco products. State laws may extend this ban and also prohibit supply, possession and consumption to/by person underage. But most of the states do not directly ban the consumption of tobacco by a minor.
The federal law requiring states to have a minimum purchasing age at 18 is enforced by withholding disaster and non-disaster grants from states that have purchasing ages under 18. Currently no state falls under that category.
Three states have a cigarette purchasing age of 19. These are Alabama, Alaska and Utah. Two counties in New York State also prohibit the sale of cigarettes to those under 19.
Hawaii, Illinois and New Jersey have all raised the legal smoking age to 21. From January 2018, Oregon will also lift the legal smoking age to 21 state-wide.
A number of other cities and counties have also introduced a legal smoking age of 21.
Asia
Sri Lanka has a legal smoking age of 21.
Oceania
Samoa has a legal smoking age of 21