In January, the age to buy tobacco was raised to 21-years-old. That law was passed federally. You now have to be 21 to buy any form of tobacco, including cigars, Juuls, dip, nasal snuff,  etc.  Personally, I am not a fan of the new law. 

There are many things about this law that upsets me. To begin with, I don’t like how the bill was passed. Right before the new year, during winter break, The Omnibus Bill was pushed through. An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers multiple unrelated topics. The main part of this omnibus bill was to raise the debt ceiling to prevent another government shutdown. So, the Democrats made a deal with Mitch McConnell (Senate Majority Leader) to pass this bill. This is when they added other laws to the omnibus bill that they wanted to be passed. One of those proposed bills was the new tobacco law that is now in effect. The only reason that law got through was that no one wanted another government shutdown and figured the best option of getting the age to purchase tobacco to 21 was to add it into the omnibus bill. 

The other thing that bothers me about the bill is just the bill itself. The age to buy tobacco should be 18. This is a common argument, but if you are able to die and kill people for your country at the age of 18 than I think you should be able to have a cigar when you want. I believe you should be able to drink and smoke marijuana if you want at 18. The government should not be telling an individual what to do when it comes to tobacco. 

The Herald will be going in-depth on the new law. Stay tuned and check out the next upcoming Herald. The war on tobacco will be addressed.