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Hawaii Politicians Consider Making Smoking Illegal For Those Under 100

Hawaii Politicians Consider Making Smoking Illegal For Those Under 100

If passed, the law would virtually ban the sale of cigarettes in the state

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Smoking is bad for us, we all know it, and eventually people will probably stop doing it, but until then it's still legal.

However, some government officials are planning to speed up its demise as they hope to bring in a radical new law to increase the minimum age for buying cigarettes from a shop.

Politicians in Hawaii are looking at raising the age from 21 to 100 years old, which, with the average life expectancy there being around 82, would pretty much work as a ban on cigarette packets.

If it goes ahead the proposed law would come into place in Hawaii, which is the 50th state of the United States of America, by 2024.

The state is no stranger to tough cigarette laws, but Democrat politician Richard Creagan believes more needs to be done to ban what he has called the 'deadliest artefact in human history'.

Officials in Hawaii are looking to raise the legal age to buy a packet of cigarettes.
PA

Mr Creagan - who is also a doctor - told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper: "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's highly lethal. And, it is.

"The state is obliged to protect the public's health. We don't allow free access to opioids, for instance, or prescription drugs. This is more dangerous than any prescription drug, and it is more addicting."

Under his proposals the changes to the law would be made incrementally over the next five years, with the legal age rising to 30 by next year, 40 years old in 2021, 50 in 2022 and 60 in 2023.

It is being rolled out slowly in order to account for the lost tax revenue that the state brings in annually - which is approximately $100 million - from cigarette sales.

The bill says: "(Hawaii) is suffering from its own addiction to cigarettes in the form of the large sums of money that the State receives from state cigarette sales taxes."

According to reports smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the country, and is estimated to cause nearly half a million deaths per year.

Last week a young electrician sadly died after using an e-cigarette. The device reportedly blew up in his face, causing shrapnel to enter his neck and sever his carotid artery.

Speaking to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the man's grandmother said: "It just hurts so bad, now he'll never see that birthday. It's a waste of the things he could have accomplished.

"It just all seems so unreal. He was running around doing his thing at 24 and now he's gone."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: World News, Interesting, US News, Health