Fact: Tobacco sales to minors, 17 years and younger, dropped in California last year after a change in the law raised the minimum purchasing age of tobacco from 18 to 21.
Researchers sent youth decoys — teens under 18– into tobacco retailers to try and buy cigarettes. Before the change in the law, decoys were able to walk out of 10.3%, 1 out of 10 stores with cigarettes. In the seven months after the law change in CA, that number dropped by almost half to 5.7%.
CA tobacco prevention specialists, and lawmakers are applauding the change in the purchasing age of tobacco, calling it a huge step in the right direction.
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