LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky is joining Indiana with a bill to raise the legal age to buy tobacco products, as well as e-cigarettes, from 18 to 21.
Republican State Sen. Ralph Alvarado from Winchester, Kentucky, pre-filed the bill Thursday. Alvarado is a physician and chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky said his proposed legislation is aimed at helping to reverse the vaping epidemic that has impacted more than a quarter of the state's high school students and one in seven middle schoolers.
Nearly 90% of adult smokers started before age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Â
"The science is clear that adolescents and teens are particularly vulnerable to the health risks of nicotine and other toxins in tobacco products," Alvarado said in a statement. "This bill is a common-sense, widely supported measure to help keep tobacco out of the hands of kids."
Alvarado will discus his bill at a rally —10 a.m. Jan. 14, 2020, in the Capitol rotunda in Frankfort, Kentucky.Â
Alvarado's tobacco legislation is not the first to be proposed lately. On Wednesday, Democratic State Rep. Buddy Wheatley from Covington, Kentucky, pre-filed a bill that would ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in Kentucky.Â
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