Englewood Becomes First New Jersey City to Raise Minimum Purchasing Age to 21

While the New Jersey Assembly weighs a bill that would make the Garden State the first in the nation to have a minimum purchasing age for tobacco at 21, a city in the most northeastern part of the state became the first to do such a thing.

The Englewood City Council approved a new ordinance that will require those purchasing tobacco products, including both cigars and e-cigarettes, to be at least 21-yeards old. In doing so, it becomes the first city in the state, although one of a growing-list of places in the northeast, particularly in Massachusetts and New York.

In June, the New Jersey Senate passed S. 602, a bill that would raise the minimum purchasing age for tobacco products to 21-years-old. It has not yet been voted on in the Assembly, the other part of the State Legislature. If passed and signed into law, New Jersey would become the first state in the nation to pass a statewide law raising the minimum purchasing age to 21. A few states have already passed laws raising the age to 19.

Similar legislation failed earlier this year in six states and there’s proposed legislation in Massachusetts that remains active.

Englewood is located in Bergen County, just three miles west of New York City on the other side of the Hudson River. It has a population just under 30,000 people.