MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — After impassioned debate stretching over two days, the Vermont House has passed and sent to the Senate a bill to increase the state’s age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 21.
The bill exempts active-duty members of the military and wounded veterans, allowing them to continue using tobacco if they are 18 or older. It offsets an anticipated loss in revenue from no longer selling tobacco to 18- to 20-year-olds by increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes 13 cents a year, ending at $3.47 in 2019.
Hawaii sets the age for buying tobacco at 21 and California recently passed a law to do the same. Vermont’s measure could still face a tough road. It appears to face doubts among senators, and Gov. Peter Shumlin said through a spokesman he does not support the measure.
Rep. George Till, a Jericho Democrat, physician and leading backer of the bill, led the charge in the House, telling his colleagues that discouraging young people from beginning to use tobacco during their teen years reduces the chances that they will ever do so. The change eventually would significantly reduce the $348 million a year Vermont spends on tobacco-related health problems, $87 million of that in Medicaid dollars, he said.