A bill in West Virginia to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21-years-old was defeated during a voice vote in the House Health & Human Services Committee this week, with members saying that they didn’t like the idea of adding another restriction as to what adults can and can not do, as well as wanting to avoid the loss of sales and tax revenue from tobacco sales.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, the lead sponsor of S.B. 348, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that while he is disappointed with the outcome, he is planning on reintroducing a similar bill in the future.
The defeat of the bill comes after it passed the Senate recently and means that the number of states to have passed such increases will remain at seven for now, with the most recent being neighboring Virginia, which will soon join Hawaii, California, Oregon, New Jersey, Maine and Massachusetts once its increase goes into effect in July.