--- title: Smoking Age: Oregon, Maine, New Jersey Raise It to 21 description: Oregon became the fifth state to raise the age for buying tobacco products to 21. canonical: https://time.com/4897111/tobacco-age-oregon-maine-new-jersey/ author: Anna Rumer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-11T16:10:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:57:35.024Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Some States Are Raising the Age to Buy Tobacco og:description: Stopping adult smokers while they're still teens. og:url: https://time.com/4897111/tobacco-age-oregon-maine-new-jersey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a1ca6356befdbf/6988d967cf40a8e70bc48efb/raise-age-buy-tobacco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: raise-age-buy-tobacco og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Some States Are Raising the Age to Buy Tobacco twitter:description: Stopping adult smokers while they're still teens. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a1ca6356befdbf/6988d967cf40a8e70bc48efb/raise-age-buy-tobacco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Some States Are Raising the Age to Buy Tobacco > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Anna Rumer](https://time.com/author/anna-rumer/) ## Anna Rumer Aug 11, 2017 4:10 PM UTC  Philip Morris Marlboro brand cigarettes are arranged for a photograph at a gas station in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, July 12, 2017\. Philip Morris International Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on July 20\. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Philip Morris Marlboro brand cigarettes are arranged for a photograph at a gas station in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, July 12, 2017\. Philip Morris International Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on July 20\. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Anna Rumer](https://time.com/author/anna-rumer/) ## Anna Rumer Aug 11, 2017 4:10 PM UTC Oregon became the fifth state to raise the age for buying tobacco products to 21. Under a bill signed by Gov. Kate Brown this week, store clerks who sell traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars as well as those who sell vapes to people under 21 will [face fines](http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/08/oregon%5Fbecomes%5Fthird%5Fstate%5Fto.html) ranging from $50 up to $1,000 for multiple offenses. The state joins neighboring California as well as Hawaii, New Jersey and Maine on the list of those that have recently raised their smoking age to 21, part of a nationwide movement to reduce tobacco use among younger Americans. Rob Crane, President of Tobacco21, which advocates for raising the smoking age to 21, said that stopping people from trying tobacco early may help prevent addiction down the road. According to the [National Survey on Drug Use and Health](https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0127.pdf), 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking before the age of 20. “We are programmed as adolescents to try new things, which is a perfect recipe for dangerous things,” he said. Advocates argue that raising the age to buy tobacco will help reduce smoking. One [study published in the journal _Tobacco Control_](http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/25/3/355) found that after the Boston suburb of Needham raised its sales age to 21, teen smoking was cut in half. A 2015 Institute of Medicine [report](http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2015/TobaccoMinAge/tobacco%5Fminimum%5Fage%5Freport%5Fbrief.pdf) found that increasing the minimum legal age for smoking would help stop younger teens from starting because they would not be as likely to be in the same social networks as adults over the age of 21, so it would be harder for them to obtain tobacco. Researchers estimated that if the tobacco sales age was raised to 21 nationwide, it would lead to a 12% decrease in adult smoking by the time today’s teens have grown up. But not everyone is sold on the idea. Alex Clark, the Executive Director of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association, which advocates for users of smoke-free tobacco products including e-cigarettes, argued that raising the smoking age would lead to more “black market activity” as people under the age of 21 seek out alternative sources of tobacco. Still, at least one vaping company backed the age restrictions. JUUL Labs, which sells vaporizers, has raised the minimum age to buy its products online to 21\. In a statement to TIME, CEO Tyler Goldman emphasized that his company sells products “designed for existing adult smokers to switch.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4897111/tobacco-age-oregon-maine-new-jersey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4897111/tobacco-age-oregon-maine-new-jersey/"},"headline":"Why Some States Are Raising the Age to Buy Tobacco","datePublished":"2017-08-11T16:10:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:57:35.024Z","description":"Oregon became the fifth state to raise the age for buying tobacco products to 21.","url":"https://time.com/4897111/tobacco-age-oregon-maine-new-jersey/","keywords":["tobacco","Vaping"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a1ca6356befdbf/6988d967cf40a8e70bc48efb/raise-age-buy-tobacco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anna Rumer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/anna-rumer/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91a1ca6356befdbf/6988d967cf40a8e70bc48efb/raise-age-buy-tobacco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"raise-age-buy-tobacco","caption":"raise-age-buy-tobacco","creditText":"Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/tobacco/","name":"tobacco"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4897111/tobacco-age-oregon-maine-new-jersey/","name":"Why Some States Are Raising the Age to Buy Tobacco"}}]}] ```