From: Joe@smokefree.org
Date: Mon, 10/16/06
New York City Considers Raising Tobacco Age to 21
Parts excerpted from the Daily News, 10/14/06
The New York City Council is considering two bills that would raise the legal
age for buying cigarettes. One would raise the age to 19. The other would
raise the age to 21. Currently, the age is 18.
Queens Councilman James Gennaro, who sponsored the version putting the legal age
at 19, said he wrote his bill based on laws passed in Alabama, Alaska and Utah,
as well as in Suffolk and Nassau counties in New York.
Bronx Councilman Joel Rivera, the Health committee chairman, wants to make it
illegal for anyone under 21 to buy cigarettes. Gennaro said he would sign on to
Rivera's version if it prevails in committee.
"The legal age to buy cigarettes and alcohol should be the same," says Joe
Cherner, president of SmokeFree Educational Services, Inc. "I don't know what
that age should be, but it should be the same."
If you have an attachment to New York City (live there, work there, etc.), you
can send a letter to the New York City Council at www.smokefree.net/nyc_21
Otherwise to send a letter where you live, go to www.smokefree.net/alerts.php
Joseph W. Cherner
"All truth passes through three stages: First it is ridiculed.
Second it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
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