The Age To Buy Tobacco And E-Cigs In NY Goes Up Next Week

The legislation was signed last July, but the actual change will happen next week.  Starting November 13th, you will now need to be 21 to buy tobacco products and e-cigs in New York state.

The age to buy tobacco products and e-cigs currently sits at 18 right now.  But on November 13th, that's going to change as it's raised to 21.

Governor Cuomo says that there is a simple goal for the law to change:

"The goal of this law is simple – to prevent cigarettes and vaping products from getting into the hands of our youth, creating an addiction to a deadly habit,” Cuomo said. “We are taking aggressive action to make sure the decades of progress we’ve made to combat tobacco addiction is not undone by a sharp rise in e-cigarette use among younger New Yorkers.”

According to WIVB, the use of cigarettes is at an all time low for high schoolers.  It's down to 4.3% as of 2016.  It was as high as 27.1 percent in 2000.

However, the use of e-cigarettes is up with the NYS Department of Health showing 40 percent of 12th graders and 27 percent of high schoolers in general using them.