Teen Attitude Towards Tobacco

The majority of teens support raising the age of legal tobacco purchase to 21, based on the results of an analysis of responses to the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Two-thirds of the respondents, ages 11 to 18 years old, want to limit teen access to tobacco.

Support for the higher age was higher among middle school students compared to high schoolers, girls compared to boys, and non-tobacco users (including non-electronic-cigarette users) compared to users.

It’s encouraging that teens on the whole want a higher age of legal purchase of tobacco. Hopefully, additional education programs will increase the teen supporters of raising the legal purchase age.