Utah 19- and 20-year-olds would be barred from smoking by 2020 under a bill a Sandy Republican filed this week in the latest attempt to raise the age to legally possess tobacco products to 21.
Rep. Steve Eliason’s HB296 was made public Thursday. The bill would hike the legal tobacco age from 19 to 20 in July 2019 and 21 by New Year’s Day 2020.
Five states have raised the tobacco possession age to 21: Hawaii, Oregon, California, Maine and New Jersey. Hundreds of cities have enacted local laws that raise the age limit to access tobacco, but none are in Utah, according to Tobacco 21, a group that advocates for hiking the smoking age limit nationwide.