You can take Iowa out of the running to become the second state to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21-years-old, as a state Senate committee declined to advance the bill on Wednesday. The bill, SF 2016, had been assigned to the Senate Human Resources Committee, which is where it met its demise on Wednesday. The bill not only called for an increase in the age to purchase tobacco products, but made it illegal for a person under the age of 21 to possess or attempt to purchase them. Sen. Herman Quimbach, D-Ames, who sponsored the bill, told the Des Moines Register that he plans to come back with a similar proposal in the 2017 legislative session, saying it often takes several years for anti-tobacco bills to win approval. That leaves Hawaii as the only state to successfully raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21. Several states still have proposals being considered by their legislatures, including Oklahoma, New Jersey, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah and Washington, though that bill recently hit a snag due to the effects it would have on the state’s budget.
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