By Nick Pedone/Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann Kuhlman

Reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration

Ohioans will now have to be 21 years old to buy tobacco products, but supporters say that isn’t enough to keep teens away from them.

On July 18, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the budget bill, increasing the legal age to buy cigarettes, cigars, vaping supplies and other tobacco products from 18 to 21 years old. This legislation reflects a national campaign, Tobacco 21, sponsored by the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation and aimed at preventing tobacco addiction in teenagers. Ohio joins 17 other states that have already raised the legal age to 21.

Research shows teen vaping is a growing health concern because teens who use e-cigarettes as their first tobacco product will be more likely to smoke cigarettes when they’re older.

Also, the adolescent brain is not fully mature until age 25, said Wendy Hyde, Ohio director of Tobacco 21, and nicotine negatively affects the prefrontal cortex.

Supporters of Tobacco 21 believe the creative, sneaky marketing by e-cigarette companies, like JUUL Labs, was just a new way to lure adolescents into nicotine and tobacco addictions. From desirable flavors, like mint and mango, to a sleek, techy design, Hyde believes the “JUUL Epidemic” is a big factor of what she describes as a “public health crisis.”

“We’re now dealing with tobacco use rates that we haven’t seen since the 1990s and nicotine addiction in our adolescents and youth,” Hyde said. “All coming really from e-cigarettes, particularly JUUL, and those types of sleeker devices.”

Hyde views the restricted access of tobacco and vaping products to youth as only a marginal victory. An undercover research study showed half of tobacco retailers nationwide do not ID teenagers. Industry officials, Hyde says, are well aware of this problem and consider the age increase just one factor in stopping teen tobacco use.

“We need to change the way our laws are written so that retailers are held accountable for continuingly selling these products to those who are underage,” Hyde said.

Despite what critics believe are clever marketing tactics aimed at teenagers, JUUL Labs insists it supports restricting the underage use of its vaping products.

“We applaud Gov. Mike DeWine for raising the purchasing age for all tobacco products, including vapor products, to 21 in Ohio,” JUUL Labs CEO Kevin Burns said in a statement. “We won’t succeed in providing the world’s one billion adult smokers with a true alternative to combustible cigarettes, the number one cause of preventable death in this country, if youth-use continues unabated.”

According to a statement on Tobacco 21’s website, raising the age to 21 is only effective if there is enforcement of retailers to stop selling tobacco products to teenagers. The organization suggests using health department inspectors to insure retailers are complying with the legislation.

Jeff Stephens, the Ohio Government Relations Director with the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, worked with legislators to create an effective Tobacco 21 legislation for Ohio.

Stephens said he was initially happy to help the Tobacco 21 campaign and was glad to see there was finally an initiative to stop underage smoking and vaping in Ohio. However, he also believes the legislation is disguising the larger problem, in that retailers will continue to sell to underage customers so they don’t lose business.

“You can’t just scratch out 18 and put in 21,” Stephens said of the new legislation. “And we know that youth access laws are currently the least effective way to prevent tobacco use.”

Stephens explained that youth access laws are ineffective because some retailers refuse to stop selling tobacco products to teenagers. Once the youth become aware of this, they continue to buy from those retailers who don’t check identification.

There’s very little enforcement or repercussions for retailers who continually sell tobacco products to minors. Current penalties for selling tobacco to a minor could include a fine or revoking a retail license, but very few compliance checks ever take place, Stephens explained.

Over time, Stephens hopes the new Tobacco 21 policy is strengthened by enabling compliance checks with retailers. These compliance checks would consist of frequent, unannounced visits from the health department. If retailers fail these compliance checks, and continue to sell to minors, they would run the risk of losing their licenses to sell all tobacco products. Stephens believes the administration will continue to work on the policy and strengthen it though the lawmaking process.

“In the end, it wasn’t the best policy that’s come out,” Stephens said, “but we’re confident that the administration is going to strengthen the policy through the administrative rules process.”

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by The George Gund Foundation.



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Nebraska needs to do better when it comes to tobacco use prevention and cessation, according to a newly released report.

In the American Lung Association's 2024 State of Tobacco Control report, Nebraska received an "F" in three of the five areas rated. One is for tobacco prevention and cessation funding.

Michael Seilback, national assistant vice president for state public policy for the American Lung Association, said Nebraska is spending vastly less than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

"The fact is that the state is taking in these dollars, and we're saying, reinvest just some of them," Seilback explained. "You can easily meet CDC best practices with tens of millions of dollars to spare."

The report showed Nebraska's tobacco-related revenue is nearly $98 million per year. However, for fiscal year 2024, state funding for tobacco control programs is less than $4 million.

On the bright side, the state received an "A" for smoke-free air.

Responding to the report, a spokesperson with the Public Information Office at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services pointed to the Nebraska Quitline. It has received more than 100,000 calls since 2000, with Quitline users six to 10 times more likely to still have quit after seven months than those who try to quit cold turkey. The Nebraska Quitline number is 1-800-784-8669, and 1-800-355-3569 for Spanish speakers. Web-based coaching and texting and free "quit medication starter kits" are also available.

The state also received an "F" for tobacco taxes. Seilback called the state's cigarette tax of 64 cents per pack extremely low and supports Gov. Jim Pillen's proposal to increase it by as much as $2 per pack. He added the American Lung Association always pushes for increased tobacco tax dollars to be used for prevention and control and helping people quit.

"To be clear, even if not one dollar was spent -- and we wouldn't encourage it -- on its own, just increasing the price has an impact on the amount of people that use it," Seilback pointed out. "Increasing that price would help prevent kids from starting."

Nebraska's third "F" is on flavored tobacco products, as a result of having no state laws or restrictions.

Seilback commended the state for participating in the multistate lawsuit against e-cigarette manufacturer, JUUL Labs, with the settlement money going to programs to curb addiction.


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Widespread vaping among young Kentuckians continues to be a public health concern - and some local communities are coming up with innovative ways to tackle the issue. A big win in the battle against nicotine came when the Commonwealth raised the age limit to purchase nicotine products to 21.

Lauren Carr, director of the Graves County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy and Prevention, said local shops are still selling vapes to kids. Her county is incentivizing business owners not to sell to minors.

"We reward the clerks that do not sell with a gift card," she said. "So we say, 'Hey, thank you for not selling to the kids. Because that is preventing it from getting into the schools.'"

Experts say tobacco retail licensing can help protect youth from the harmful effects of vaping and can also improve equity among low-income and communities of color, often targeted by the tobacco industry.

According to Kentucky Youth Advocates, about 35 states require retailers to hold a license to sell tobacco products, but Kentucky is not one of them.

Sydney Shafer, a high school student in Scott County, said after her grandfather passed away from lung cancer, she became passionate about raising awareness among state lawmakers about the harms of vaping.

"Big vape companies are targeting younger audiences with fun flavors, like cotton candy and coffee," she argued. "It's deceptive and manipulative, and I would just want to educate other people and let them know that vaping is not as safe as they think."

Bruce Crouch, drug prevention officer with the Youth Coalition Prevention Group at Taylor County High School, said his school district recently received an opioid settlement grant from the state to expand drug prevention work.

"We actually started with our intermediate school, with fourth-graders," Crouch reported. "And we introduced a program, the 'Too Good for Drugs' program. So, they are actually getting that early education about the dangers of nicotine use."

Research from the CDC and FDA finds more than 2.5 million middle and high school students nationwide reported e-cigarette use in 2022. Nearly 85% of youth who vape used flavored e-cigarettes, and more than half used disposable e-cigarettes.


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The Food and Drug Administration will be releasing guidance on its proposed menthol cigarette ban by month's end. In Virginia, these cigarettes make up 45% of the state's menthol cigarette market.

Several states - including California, New York and Rhode Island - have implemented menthol bans in recent years. As beneficial as this move may be for people's health, law enforcement officials aren't as celebratory.

Diane Goldstein, executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, said the only kind of ban that would work is no ban at all.

"I don't care if it's a tobacco product, a caffeine product, an alcohol product, or the unregulated illicit market that we currently have," she said. "People are always going to find a way to get the drugs that they want."

She noted that enforcing such a ban could be problematic for already disenfranchised communities. The FDA has said its new proposal won't penalize individual smokers - rather, it will penalize distributors. The hope is the ban will improve health across the state and the nation, especially as Virginia ranked poorly in the American Lung Association's 2023 State of Tobacco Control Report.

Goldstein said she feels there should be additional studies done before the proposed rules are finalized to ensure that disenfranchised communities with higher smoking rates won't be so harshly affected. She described the kind of approach she'd want to see taken as part of a ban.

"You have policies that have been in place for years, that include, we need more harm-reduction in the state products for adults," she said. "We need more education, we need better cessation support, we need better youth tobacco prevention."

An analysis of several studies by Quit Now Virginia found that 25% to 64% of adult smokers would quit if menthol cigarettes were banned in the United States.