A California state senator worried about the number of teenagers using tobacco wants to raise the legal minimum age for smoking in the Golden State from 18 to 21.
State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), an optometrist, introduced the legislation on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Tobacco companies know that people are more likely to become addicted to smoking if they start at a young age," he said in a statement. "We can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines while Big Tobacco markets to our kids and gets another generation of young people hooked on a product that will ultimately kill them."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Winchcombe meteorite: space rock may reveal how water came to EarthThe Explainer New analysis of its violent journey confirms scientific theories on the origin of our planet's H2O
-
Liz Truss to save the West: is a political comeback really on the cards?Talking Point The former prime minister is back with a new tell-all memoir
-
Fallout: one of the 'most faithful – and best – video game adaptations'The Week Recommends This 'genre-bending' new Amazon series is set in a post-apocalyptic wilderness where survivors shelter below ground
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
-
Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba have a rough day in defamation courtSpeed Read Trump's audible grousing as E. Jean Carroll testified earned him a warning he could be thrown out of court, and Habba showed she 'doesn't know what the hell she's doing'
-
Anders Breivik to testify in prison isolation lawsuit against NorwaySpeed Read Far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in 2011 claims he has received 'inhuman treatment' in custody
