Nelson chief-authored legislation to raise the statewide age for purchasing tobacco and e-cigarettes to 21 

Senator Carla Nelson renewed her call to raise Minnesota’s age to purchase tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to twenty-one to combat the growing vaping epidemic. The 2019 Minnesota Student Survey revealed over a 50% increase in vaping usage among 11th graders as compared to the 2016 survey, contributing to the first rise in youth tobacco rates in over fifteen years. 

“Vaping related deaths here in Minnesota and across the nation sound serious warning bells about these untested and unregulated vaping products,” said Sen. Nelson, chief-author of the Tobacco 21 (T21) bill in the Senate. “Schools are ground zero in the vaping health crisis,” added Sen. Nelson, who is Chairwoman of the Senate E-12 Education Committee and a member of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “E-cigarette companies target youth through vape flavors such as Bubble Gum and Sour Patch which often contain the nicotine of four packs of cigarettes. We must take action now and raise the age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products to twenty-one statewide.”

Nearly 95% of addicted adult smokers start before age twenty-one, so keeping tobacco products away from youth can prevent lifetime addiction. Fifty Minnesota communities are doing just that and have passed local ordinances that increase the age to purchase tobacco or vape products to twenty-one. Yet, the statewide age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products remains eighteen. 

“A new generation is being addicted to nicotine at an astonishing rate. Raising Minnesota’s statewide age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products to twenty-one must be a top priority,” said Sen. Nelson. “The vaping epidemic is a statewide problem and calls for statewide action.”

In addition to Tobacco 21, Senator Nelson championed two other important tobacco prevention and cessation policies that were signed into law earlier this year– funding for statewide quit-smoking services and strengthening the clean indoor air act by prohibiting e-cigarette or vaping use where smoking is already banned.