The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

 According to data from Vox, the law change was in response to an influx of illnesses in relation to vaping and e-cigarette use in recent years. Nineteen states had raised the age to 21 prior to this, and the federal law is now just following suit. Senators hope that this law change will save lives.

Himani Patel, a second year graduate student attending the University of Denver, is a smoker, and said that she was trying to quit smoking when the new law went into effect. She thinks that no matter what the legal age is, it should be the same for nicotine and alcohol, because they have similar impacts on the body. 

“I think it’s helpful to have the smoking age higher because it means that kids won’t get addicted at such a vulnerable age,” Patel said. 

In 2018, 12.3 million of the students currently attending college or college level institutions are between the ages of 18 and 24. Out of this age group, 13 of every 100 people currently smoke, according to Maryville University. That’s 1.6 million college students that smoke, who would be effected by this law.

Within this 1.6 million, roughly eight hundred thousand of those students are above the age of 21 and can still legally smoke cigarettes. According to the American Lung Association, smoking can cause more than ten life threatening or life altering diseases— such as lung cancer, loss of fertility, and strokes. The law change effectively cut the number of college aged smokers threatened by these diseases in half. 

Third year Savanna Morrison said, “If you can join the army at 18… I feel like you should be able to smoke, too,”

Morrison is not a smoker, and she said it doesn’t really matter what the legal tobacco age is. She believes that if someone really wants tobacco, they can get it no matter their age.

According to Tobacco Free Kids, tobacco is the number one preventable cause of death in the US, and raising the smoking age will help reduce this statistic. Tony Oki, a second year at the University, has a similar opinion. 

“If I had to pick, I’d pick no smoking. But 21 is good, over 21, I think they can decide if it’s good for them or not,” Oki said. 

Oki is also not a smoker, and felt no impact on his life when the age changed except for relief. He is glad that people will be able to make the choice at a more developed age, and thinks making it harder for young people to smoke will help them in the long run. 

According to ABC News, one third of college students were using tobacco products in 2006, but most are using cigars and other forms of nicotine, not cigarettes. Law makers hope that by raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products will make this number shrink drastically. 

These students are all in consensus on one thing: the change in the law was a good thing, and if it does change the lives of college students, it will be for the better. According to these three, smoking is dangerous, and the risk shouldn’t be taken before 21 years old. 

“I think it should be more about how you’re using it, like maybe having some sort of quota of how much you can purchase at any age would be more beneficial than what age you can buy it at,” said Patel.