Should Iowa Raise The Legal Vaping/Smoking Age To 21?

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, "Iowa's top Senate Republican says he favors raising the state's legal age to 21 for possessing tobacco and e-cigarette products."

His name is Jack Whitver and he's the Senate Majority Leader. He was on the television show Iowa Press and said, "If we can raise the age to 21, we might have a shot to eliminate vaping that's occurring in our schools."

There are many people that believe most smokers start as kids or young adults. That was the case for me, as I started smoking when I was just 15-years-old. I smoked for over 20 years before I was able to kick the habit.

Does the tobacco industry target young people with their advertising?

According to tobaccofreekids.org, "Tobacco companies intentionally market to kids and young adults to recruit "replacement smokers" and protect company profits. Increasing the age to 21 will help counter those efforts of the tobacco companies to target young people at a crucial time when many move from experimenting with tobacco to regular smoking."

When I was growing up there was no vaping. We had cigarettes and chew, and my friends and I did both. In fact, my best friend back then could have taken a trip around the world if "Camel Cash" was worth dollars instead of vouchers!

We smoked because it was cool. Little did we know what damage was being done to our bodies. I wish the age would have been higher when I was at that time in my life. Maybe, just maybe, I would't have been a 20-year smoker.