Tobacco 21 is pushing cities and states to increase the legal purchase age to 21 to make it more difficult for children and young adults to buy cigarettes, chew and other products. High school students can find 18-year-old friends to buy them tobacco but it's more burdensome to get a 21-year-old to do so. If youngster find it more difficult to access tobacco, they may never pick up the habit, advocates for Tobacco 21 say.
Dr. Rob Crane, an Ohio State University associate professor of family medicine and president of the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, has been lobbying jurisdictions to raise the purchase age to 21.
In April, Cleveland outlawed the purchase of tobacco products for anyone under 21. In May, California passed a similar law.
Ohio has a higher rate of smokers -- 23.3 percent -- than the national average of 19.6 percent, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
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