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.