Oregon Raises Age To Legally Purchase Tobacco Products

SALEM, OR — With her signature, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday made official the new state law prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to people under 21 years old.

Senate Bill 754 (or Tobacco Bill 21, as it's also known) will take effect Jan. 1, 2018, barring anyone under 21 from buying tobacco products and inhalant delivery systems, and making it illegal to sell tobacco products or inhalant delivery systems to anyone under 21.

The Senate passed the bill by a 19-8 vote in March, and the House passed it 39-20 in late July.

Oregon is now the third U.S. state to raise the legal smoking age, following Hawaii and California. Across the nation, nearly 200 cities have adopted ordinances that raised the smoking age, including Oregon's Lane County, which voted March 14 — making it the first county in Oregon to enact such an ordinance.

Watch: More States Are Moving To Raise The Legal Smoking Age To 21

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