CITY HALL — Teens trying to buy cigarettes face new hurdles starting Friday when the city's legal smoking age rises to 21.
The Emanuel administration touted the new law as "an early independence day" to free teens from smoking.
"Thanks to our ongoing efforts to shield our children from the harms of tobacco products, youth smoking in Chicago is on the decline, helping people to lead healthier lives and live longer,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement released this week. “We have consistently fought to protect our youth from being targeted by Big Tobacco so they can become Chicago’s first tobacco-free generation."
Public Health Commissioner Julie Morita said the change is based on scientific research.
Ted Cox on Chicago raising the smoking age to 21.
"Because their brains are still developing, adolescents are especially vulnerable to addiction to tobacco and related products," Morita said. "By delaying the age that youth are exposed to these products until that critical development has taken place, we increase the chance they are able to resist addiction to tobacco.
"Keeping our youth away from tobacco until they are 21 is likely to extend their lives and boost the overall quality of their health," she added.
The City Council approved the change in March as part of a tax package on forms of tobacco other than cigarettes. Health issues aside, it encountered significant opposition from aldermen who said it would hurt merchants by chasing smokers to the suburbs and Indiana, and that it would also spur sales of "loosies" on street corners.
In fact, aldermen delayed passage for a month, but Emanuel insisted he had the votes all along and ultimately prevailed 35-10, with an effective date of Friday.
Part of the final package was the ironic allowance that 18-year-olds can sell cigarettes, but not buy or legally smoke them — a compromise granting relief to stores with teenage cashiers.
Emanuel said the change would protect the estimated 118,000 city residents between ages 18-20.
New York City, Boston, Cleveland and Kansas City have already raised their smoking age to 21, as has north suburban Evanston.
The American Cancer Society cheered the trend.
"These new laws will go far to protect our youth from tobacco use, the No. 1 preventable cause of death in America,” said Nico Probst, Chicago spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “Mayor Emanuel, the Chicago Council and organizations that support these new laws understand that the health of our youth must always come first, and that taking important stands like this one will result in fewer lifelong smokers, more lives saved and a healthier Chicago."
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