House committee moves to increase Arizona smoking age to 21

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Despite one lawmaker’s protests that if age 18 is old enough to go to war, it’s old enough to smoke, a House committee gave preliminary approval Thursday to a measure that would raise the legal smoking age in Arizona to 21.

Republican Rep. Paul Boyer of Phoenix, who sponsored HB2335, told the House Health Committee that 90 percent of adult smokers started before they were 21 – and by increasing the age limit, lawmakers would decrease the number of lifelong smokers.

And Boyer argued the bill would make harder for 18-year-old high school seniors to buy cigarettes for their younger friends.

But Republican Rep. Jay Lawrence of Scottsdale, a U.S. Air Force veteran who voted against the measure, questioned whether it would also apply to members of the military.

“So this individual about to be shipped to Syria, about to be shipped to Afghanistan and buying cigarettes for the trip, even though he’s going into combat, perhaps, would not be able to buy cigarettes?” Lawrence asked.

Boyer responded that the bill would raise the smoking age for everyone, but added that the military itself also considered increasing the minimum smoking age.