LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Vaping and tobacco products will soon be on the list of things teenagers cannot buy.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign a bill Friday that would raise the age for legally buying tobacco products from 18-21. The measure is included in the spending bill passed by Congress, and the idea even has support among some who might lose business.
The owner of the Derb E Cigs vape stores in Louisville said he supports raising the age, because teens are not his target customers.
“Vaping was created for adult smokers to quit combustible tobacco," Troy Leblanc said. "That is our only goal."
He said he has no problem with making tobacco an adults-only product.
“Our goal is not to addict teens,” said Leblanc, who is also president of the Kentucky Smoke Free Association.
But health advocates agree making it more difficult to obtain tobacco products will help curb the rising epidemic of teenage vaping and nicotine addiction.
“Sixteen- and 17-year-olds don't typically hang out with 21-year-olds," said Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. "They do hang out with 18-year-olds. Eighteen-year-olds are still in school with them."
The Tobacco 21 bill was introduced by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who pushed the measure while acknowledging many Kentucky farmers still depend on tobacco.
“Kentucky farmers don't want their children to be forming nicotine addictions in middle school or high school any more than anyone else,” McConnell said during a speech on the Senate floor.
While he supports the law, Leblanc hopes enforcement is phased-in over several years.
“If you do a T-21 overnight, it's basically going to make criminals out of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds that are currently smoking,” he said.
Chandler said it is the retailers who should be penalized, not the kids.
“We don't want to have people with records, young people with criminal records, going forward in life,” Chandler said.
And while Chandler believes raising the age is a good first step, he wants the state to go further.
“The flavors are particularly attractive to young people, and we'd like to see those banned just like they are with regular cigarettes,” he said.
Leblanc said he hopes the new restrictions on e-cigarettes do not pave the way to eventual ban.
“Bans have never worked in the history of our country," he said. "We're for placing restrictions on our product, but we're not for an all-out ban.”
The new law will go into effect nine months after Trump signs it.
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