California lawmakers raising smoking age to curb teen smoking

California raising smoking age to 21 will curb high school smoking, says UCI health policy researcher.

With California lawmakers voting this month to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 years of age, questions are being raised about its impact. Although much of the discussion of the policy has centered on the 18 to 20 year-olds who will no longer be able to buy cigarettes, the real focus should be its potential to keep cigarettes away from high school students 14 to 17 years old, said John Billimek, a researcher with the Health Policy Research Institute in the UC Irvine School of Medicine.

The impact of raising the tobacco-use age will be greatest on this younger group and can be an effective way to curb youth smoking.

While high school teens spend time around 18-year-olds almost every day on campus, relatively few come across 21-year-olds who can supply them cigarettes, he says, thus limiting their access to tobacco products until they are older.

In 2006, Billimek co-authored a study that explored raising the legal smoking age to 21, finding that it can lead to curbing smoking among younger kids. This is important, he says, because the earlier people pick up the habit, the longer they're likely to continue smoking throughout their lives.

"This can be a long-term effective policy to curb teen smoking," Billimek says. "It's important that a large metropolitan area like New York take the lead on this. If it works there, I wouldn't be surprised to see other municipal, county or state governments try the same."