/ dpa
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Los Angeles – A member of parliament in Hawaii no longer only wants to protect young people from smoking, but everyone under 100 years of age. His legislative proposal provides for the minimum age for buying cigarettes to be gradually increased. In the end it should be 100 years.
The plan for a largely smoke-free life comes from Richard Creagan. He is a doctor and sits for the Democrats in the House of Representatives for the US state of Hawaii. Creagan wants to fight with the proposal “the deadliest product in the history of mankind”. Right now, smokers are “enslaved by a ridiculously evil industry that has created a cigarette that is highly addictive and highly fatal,” Creagan told the newspaper Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Under current law, people in Hawaii are allowed to buy cigarettes from the age of 21. Creagan’s plan is to increase this age limit to 30 years by next year. In 2021 it is to be increased further to 40 years, in 2022 to 50 and 2023 to 60. From 2024, only people who have reached the age of one hundred will be allowed to buy cigarettes.
According to the health authority CDCP, almost 500,000 people die each year in the USA as a result of cigarette smoking. It is the leading cause of preventable illness and death nationwide. © afp / aerzteblatt.de
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