Hawaii considers raising legal smoking age to 100

Would-be cigarette smokers in the US state of Hawaii might have to wait a very long time for their first legal drag, after a lawmaker introduced a bill that would bar sales to anyone under the age of 100.

The proposed law, introduced by local Democratic representative Richard Creagan, would effectively amount to a cigarette ban by 2024.

Hawaii already has some of the toughest laws on cigarette sales but Creagan – an emergency room doctor – believes more needs to be done to ban “the deadliest artefact in human history,” according to his proposed bill.

“Basically, we essentially have a group who are heavily addicted – in my view, enslaved by a ridiculously bad industry – which has enslaved them by designing a cigarette that is highly addictive, knowing that it highly lethal. And, it is,” he told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

Under current law, you must be 21-years-old to purchase cigarettes in Hawaii. Nationwide, the minimum age is 18 or 19.

Creagan’s proposal calls for raising the cigarette-buying age to 30 by next year, 40 in 2021, 50 in 2022 and 60 in 2023. By 2024, the minimum age would be 100.