Underage Tobacco and Vape Sales Increased Across Wisconsin This Year

Tuesday, November 21st, 2023 -- 8:00 AM

(Margaret Faust, Wisconsin Public Radio) Underage tobacco and vape sales increased across Wisconsin this year, according to data released by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

According to MArgaret Faust with Wisconsin Public Radio, while the increase was slight from the year before, underage tobacco and vape sales have increased 140 percent since 2019, the increase largely due to the legal age for buying tobacco increasing from 18 to 21.

According to the DHS, sales to underage buyers sit at about 13.6 percent of total sales this year. If tobacco sales to people who are underage exceed 20 percent of total sales, Wisconsin stands to lose millions in federal funding resources.

Gina Larsen of the DHS's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program said the "disappointing" increase can be explained by the mismatch in state and federal laws. State law says the legal age to buy cigarettes, nicotine or tobacco products is 18 years old.

But in 2019, federal law raised the age to 21. The federal law supersedes state regulations. Larsen said that's confusing for retailers and consumers and limits the power of local law enforcement who cannot issue citations for federal violations. "There's kind of a way out of this forest of confusion," Larsen said. She says the solution is to change the state law to mirror the federal one.

According to the American Lung Association, 95 percent of adults who have ever smoked daily started by age 21. That's why Larsen believes increasing the age will be effective. "So by age 25, if you haven't started, you probably never will," Larsen said.

Larsen said nicotine usage negatively impacts a changing brain, which is why the age limit is important. It can affect attention, focus and impulse control, and exacerbate mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

"This is just such an important time in a young person's life, and these choices that they make are going to impact their health, their finances, their relationships, their workplace productivity far into the future," Larsen said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2023, nearly 28 of every 100 high school students said they tried a tobacco product. Previous attempts to bring state law in line with the federal regulations on tobacco have failed.

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