Hawaii Raises Smoking Age

Hawaii became the first state in the US to officially raise the legal smoking age from 18 in an effort to prevent teens and young people from picking up the habit in the first place. Hawaiian Governor David Ige signed a historic bill that raised the legal smoking age to 21. According to a report from the Bangor Daily News, the law will take effect on January 1, 2016 and will additionally ban the sale, purchase, and use of electronic cigarettes for underage Hawaiians. He also approved a bill that would ban smoking in state parks, which will be added to the list of city and county parks where smoking is already banned. Hawaii County and New York City are two of the first major municipalities to enforce a smoking age of 21, but this landmark law is the first to make a statewide ban.