State could raise smoking age to 21

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson will announce a bill this afternoon to raise the state’s legal age to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products from 18 to 21. If the bill passes, Washington would become the first in the country to raise its smoking age to 21 statewide. New York City and several other cities have done it. In Alabama, Alaska and New Jersey, the purchasing age is 19. The move comes as federal statistics suggest smoking among young Americans is dropping. The youngest group of adult smokers, ages 18 to 24, shrunk significantly from 24.4 percent in 2005 to 17.3 percent in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill warns that the years between ages 18 to 21 are a “critical period” in which more than a quarter of tobacco users move from experimentation to daily use. It projects that raising the purchasing age to 21 could cut the youth smoking rate in half within seven years. The bill’s prime sponsor is Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines. It received its first reading this morning and was referred to the House Health and Wellness Committee