Maryland’s Governor to Sign Tobacco Purchase Age Increase Bill on Monday

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has announced that he will sign a bill raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products in the state to 21-years-old on Monday.

The bill, H.B. 1169, was passed by the state legislature in March and finalized by the House in early April after the two chambers debated whether there should be an exemption for active duty members to the military with valid identification. Ultimately, the exemption won out and was added to the final version of the bill.

The increase will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2019.

Maryland is one of roughly a dozen states to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products and e-cigarettes to 21-years-old, and one of several to do so this year. New York has a bill awaiting the signature of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has indicated that he will sign it, while active legislation is also being considered in Iowa, Florida,and Texas, with that state’s Senate approving the bill. Additionally, federal legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 21-years-old nationwide has been introduced via several bills.

Featured image by Joe Andrucyk and Patrick Siebert, courtesy of the Executive Office of the Governor, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.