whereby starting in 2027 the legal age for the purchase of cigarettes will increase by a year annually in that country, so that anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009 will never be able to legally purchase them, amounting to a lifetime ban.

Lost amid last month’s frenzied news regarding the latest COVID variant was a landmark announcement by the government of New Zealand of a bold new countermeasure aimed at the eventual eradication of an even greater killer: tobacco. In what is known as the “Smoke-Free Generation,” starting in 2027 the legal age for the purchase of cigarettes will increase by a year annually in that country, so that anyone under 18 will never be able to legally buy them, amounting to a lifetime

Raising the minimum legal age for sale of tobacco and vaping products to 21 is a smart and needed component of both reinvigorating our longstanding, but stalling, battle against smoking, as well as constructing a defense with any hope of countering the tsunami- like rise in youth vaping currently underway.

On Nov. 1, the minimum legal age for purchasing cigarettes in the state of New Jersey was raised to 21. Hawaii and California already have “Tobacco 21” laws in effect, while Oregon and Maine have recently passed laws that will come into force next year.