Cigarettes beginning in 2020 in Hawaii will not be sold to anyone younger than the age of 30. By 2024 the age limit for purchasing cigarettes will be 100.

The Hawaiian House of Representatives has agreed that cigarettes are one of the deadliest artifacts mankind has ever created. Ever since the 1950s, scientists discovered that smoking could cause lung cancer, cigarettes have been seen as a problem in the United States.

Manufactures and advertising agencies were battling with doctors and scientists. During this time, cigarettes were popularized by actors and actresses and many big tobacco industries would use advertisements with prominent figures to promote the fashion of smoking cigarettes.

During the 1920s, the U.S. banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol in order to decrease crime rate and corruption. This was an experiment that failed. Instead of decreasing crime rates, people began to create and sell illegal alcohol which led to the creations of mafias and gangs. The prohibition also increased government spending. And for those who could not obtain alcohol during the Prohibition, they would switch to new drugs like marijuana and opium. Because of the failure of prohibition, it was repealed. It ended after 13 years.

There is a high possible chance that the cigarette ban in Hawaii would not be successful and it would just lead to more people buying cigarettes outside of the state. People outside of Hawaii can bring in cigarettes by themselves. So if someone inside of Hawaii wants cigarettes, all they would have to do is ask someone from outside the state to bring it in for them, be it a relative or dealer.

Richard Creagan, the state representative who proposed the bill, strongly believes that the ban will work. The ban will still allow e cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, snuff and snus. Creagan is also a supporter of legalizing marijuana. He believes that those items are safer than cigarettes.

In the bill, the legislature said 150,000 adults smoke in Hawaii. The addiction is so severe according to the bill, that the amount of money returned to the state by tax on cigarettes have totaled up to 100,000 dollars per year as time goes on. The legislature believes that “banning the sales of cigarettes should be viewed as a good faith effort to free smokers from the enslavement of this powerful addiction and not an infringement on individual liberties.”

The law will begin in 2020 and for those who are under the age of 30 will not be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the state of Hawaii. In 2021 the age will increase to 40, 50 in 2022, 60 in 2023, and 100 in 2024.