Click the link above for the full blog article by the Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
The following is only an excerpt:
Tobacco 21 laws help protect young people from nicotine addiction
Almost all people who use tobacco products start doing so as teenagers or as young adults. (A recent study by Statistics Canada found "for both men and women, the age at which they started smoking remained virtually unchanged over the past 80 years", with the "the peak age of initiation was 15 to 17 for women and 16 for men".
Measures which help protect youth and young adults from experimenting with and becoming addicted to tobacco will have long-term benefits for those individuals and for the community.
Laws which set the minimum legal age for the sale of cigarettes at 21 help protect young people by raising barriers to their accessing tobacco:
- They establish a new social and legal norm
- They reduce the ability of younger teenagers to buy from their peer-group, creating a longer age buffer between those who are legally able to purchase and high-school students.
- They support policy change by post-secondary education institutions and employers.
- Those who start smoking at a younger age are more likely to find it difficult to quit.
- Nicotine use is harmful to the developing brains of young people.
