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By RYAN JASLOW / CBS NEWS / November 19, 2013, 7:13 PM
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Updated 3:20 p.m. ET
NEW YORK Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed landmark legislation Tuesday
banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21, making New
York the first large city or state in the country to prohibit sales to young adults.
play VIDEO
Meet the Gerber Baby, all
grown up
City health officials hope that raising the legal purchase age from 18 to 21 will lead
to a big decline in smoking rates in a critical age group. A majority of smokers get
addicted to cigarettes before age 21, and then have trouble quitting, even if they
want to do so.
The ban has limitations, in terms of its ability to stop young people from picking
up the deadly habit. Teenagers can still possess tobacco legally. Kids will still be
able to steal cigarettes from their parents, bum them from friends or buy them
from the black-market dealers who are common in many neighborhoods.
But City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley
said the idea is to make it more inconvenient for
young people to get started, especially young teens
who had previously had easy access to cigarettes
through slightly older peers.
Play VIDEO
Concern over more teens
smoking e-cigarettes
"Right now, an 18-year-old can buy for a
16-year-old," he said. Once the law takes effect, in
180 days, Farley said, that 16-year-old would
"have to find someone in college or out in the
workforce."
Tobacco companies and some retailers had opposed the age increase, saying it
play VIDEO
Once a pun a time
would simply drive teenagers to the city's thriving black market.
play VIDEO
"What are you really accomplishing? It's not like they are going to quit smoking.
Why? Because there are so many other places they can buy cigarettes," said Jim
Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores. "Every
18-year-old who walks out of a convenience store is just going to go to the guy in
the white van on the corner."
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CBS New York reports if store owners violate the law by selling to people under 21,
they would be fined up to $1,000 for each violation found in a single day and up to
$2,000 for a second violation. Retailers could also lose their license to sell tobacco
products.
Bloomberg, who was a former smoker, also signed legislation on Tuesday that will
seek to keep the price of tobacco high by prohibiting coupons and other discounts
and setting a minimum cigarette price of $10.50 per pack.
play
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"For someone who might be trying to quit
smoking, it makes it easy for them to buy on
impulse," Farley said.
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Play VIDEO
Calvin said the elimination of discounts would
further feed the drift away from legal cigarettes,
and toward illicit supplies brought into the city by
dealers who buy them at greatly reduced prices in
other states, where tobacco taxes are low.
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Bloomberg rejected criticism from some retailers that the measures would hurt the
economy and lead to job losses.
"This is an issue of whether we are going to kill people," Bloomberg said.
State Sen. Diane Savino and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal announced the
plan to raise the minimum age in April.
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Savino, a former smoker, lost both her parents and a grandparent to lung cancer.
"This is an illness, and an addiction that will last me for the rest of my life," Savino
said at a press conference at the time.
Both bills were passed by the City Council late last month. The legislation also
prohibits the sale of small cigars in packages of less than 20 and increases
penalties for retailers that violate sales regulations.
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Ryan Jaslow is CBSNew s.com's health editor.
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