A. The federal Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-94) raised the federal minimum age for sale of tobacco products from eighteen years old to twenty-one years old. The Section of that Act providing for this change became known as “Tobacco 21” or “T21”. The new federal minimum age of sale of tobacco and tobacco products was effective immediately and applies to all retail establishments and persons with no exceptions.

            B.(1) Federal enforcement of the federal change in age is through the federal block grant program for mental health and substance abuse. In 1992, Congress enacted the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act (P.L. 102-321), which included an amendment (Section 1926 known as the Synar Amendment) aimed at decreasing youth access to tobacco. This amendment requires states to enact and enforce laws regarding tobacco and tobacco product sales in compliance with federal law in order to receive their full Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) award.

            (2) T21 contained a transition period of three years from the date of enactment before monies may be withheld from a SABG award to a state for noncompliance. The Act requires states to document and report to the secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services efforts made to come into compliance with federal law.

            (3) T21 provides for the United States Food and Drug Administration to continue to conduct random and unannounced compliance check inspections on tobacco product retailers to determine a retailer’s compliance with federal law and regulations. While T21 did not provide for a grace period or transition period for tobacco retailers, the United States Food and Drug Administration has agreed to continue to use minors under the age of eighteen for undercover buy inspections in its compliance check program.

            C.(1) In addition to the federal mandate, there is a growing body of evidence about health problems related to tobacco and vapor use by youth.

            (2) In 2016, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration conducted a national survey on drug use and health which showed that about ninety-five percent of adult smokers began smoking before turning twenty-one years of age and nearly eighty percent of them were daily smokers by the age of twenty-one. This is significant because in 2014 the Surgeon General released a report entitled The Health Consequences of Smoking: 50 Years of Progress which recognized that adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods of growth and exposure to nicotine can have lasting, negative consequences on brain development.

            (3) Both the United States Food and Drug Administration and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working to investigate the distressing incidents of severe respiratory illness and deaths associated with use of vaping products and have issued consumer warnings and alerts on the matter. The warnings and alerts include a recommendation that vaping products should never be used by youth.

            Acts 2021, No. 403, §2; Acts 2022, No. 34, §1.