Once again, bills have been introduced to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco in the state of Texas from 18 to 21.

Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, and Joan Huffman, R-Houston, have introduced SB 183 in the Texas senate while HB 628 has been introduced in the Texas house by John Zerwas, R-Richmond and Donna Howard, D-Austin.

The bipartisan co-sponsors feel they have as good as a chance they have ever, hoping the Republican opposition can be convinced to vote in favor because of potential savings the state can benefit from when it comes to reduced health costs. That being said, similar measures have failed 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.

If passed, Texas would join  California and Hawaii as the only states where you must be 21 to purchase tobacco.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.