Dr. Richard Creagan doesn't think that higher taxes on cigarettes and anti-smoking campaigns are doing enough to get people to kick the habit, so he's come up with a different solution.
Creagan, a former emergency room physician, is a Democratic member of Hawaii's state House of Representatives, and his new bill, HB 1509, would quickly raise the minimum smoking age over five years — to 30 in 2020, 40 in 2021, 50 in 2022, 60 in 2023, and 100 in 2024. This would effectively ban the sale of cigarettes to most people in the state.
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