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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter: ​The smoking age should be raised

TO THE EDITOR:

Last week the California House of Representatives passed legislation to raise its statutory tobacco purchase age to 21 years of age. The California Senate is expected to follow suit soon and send a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown to sign to make the higher age restriction state law. If the bill succeeds California will join Hawaii among states and municipalities like San Francisco, New York, Boston and Evanston, Ill., with progressive, science-based tobacco product purchase age restrictions.

Recognizing this legislative trend addresses a substantive public health need, on March 6 the New York Times published an opinion piece titled “Raise the Legal Age for Cigarette Sales to 21.” In it the Times reiterated the analysis and provides links to some reports used to justify these states’ and municipalities’s actions and the Times’ editorial position.

Though UNC is home to a world-renowned school of public health and school of medicine, it is understandable that our “tobacco state” faculty, students and administrators would hesitate to challenge the tobacco status quo on campus. Indeed, UNC remains in violation of both the letter and the spirit of its own no smoking policy published in 2008 and amended in 2011. Indeed, some UNC leaders believe it is futile in the present legislative climate to amend and enforce the current policy. This is unacceptable, especially in the face of a national trend that views tobacco use and purchase age restrictions as a public good worth pursuing at a national level.

Prof. Vincent J. Kopp

School of Medicine

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