Senator Mitch McConnell wants to increase the age to buy tobacco products

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Senator Mitch McConnell is lobbying to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 years old and said he expects legislation on this "top priority" by the end of the month.

The Senate majority leader from the state of Kentucky, the country's second-largest tobacco producer, said he was urged to raise the legal age of buying tobacco products because of the wave. of vaping in young people.

"For some time, I've heard about parents attending an unprecedented spike in their teenage children's vaping," said Senator McConnell at a news conference in Louisville, Kentucky. "We all know people who started smoking at a young age and struggled to quit in adulthood, but unfortunately it is reaching epidemic levels across the country."

PHOTO: Studies have not shown that exchanging cigarettes for e-cigarettes is an effective way to quit smoking.
Getty Images
Studies were not convinced that exchanging cigarettes for electronic cigarettes was an effective way to quit smoking.

There is currently a bipartisan group of senators advocating the passage of a bill that would achieve this goal. The Tobacco to 21 Act, sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Todd Young, R-Ind., Received the endorsement of the Campaign for Tobacco. Free Kids, who stated that it was "an important element of a comprehensive strategy to reverse the e-cig epidemic among young people and further reduce smoking.

Schatz is the Democratic's main co-sponsor of the bill and has called on McConnell to support "clean legislation" that includes "no loopholes" or "no exceptions".

"If Chief McConnell wants to join our efforts, I think the cleanest way to do that would be to co-sponsor our bill," Schatz said at a news conference. "We are eager to see what he proposes when he proposes something."

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