A project in Hawaii proposes to sell cigarettes only to those over 100 in 2024

A member of the Legislative Assembly of Hawaii presented a project gradually increase the minimum age to buy tobacco 100 years from now until 2024.

The goal of the democratic legislator Richard Creagan is to make the archipelago the first US state to ban virtually all tobacco sales, the "The deadliest invention of humanity"according to his project.

"We have a group that is heavily addicted, I see it as enslaved by a ridicule and terrible industry that enslaves them the design of a very addictive cigar even knowing that it is deadlyand that's the case, "said the parliamentarian, a physician by profession, to the Hawaii Tribune newspaper.

In 2016, Hawaii became the first state to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco, from 18 to 21 years, as with alcohol.

The Creagan project, which do not believe that the tax increase is effective, to propose raise to 30 years of age by 2020, a 40 in 2021, 50 in 2022 and 60 in 2023. From 2024, anyone who wants to buy a pack of cigarettes must be at least 100 years old.

In this way, the state could ban virtually all sales of cigars on its territory without being the subject of legal proceedings by the tobacco industry.

"The state is obliged to protect public health", said Creagan, who admitted to smoking while studying medicine to stay awake during his long periods of work.

"We do not allow people to have free access to opiates, for example, or any other prescription drug," he said. The cigarette "is more lethal, more dangerous than any prescription drug and more addictive."

"Our duty is to save people, if we do not ban cigarettes, we kill them"he said.