Increasing Age to 21 For Purchasing Cigarettes



There has been talk for many years around raising the minimum age requirement for purchasing tobacco products like cigarettes and vaping devices nationwide.

However, just recently, Rite Aid and Walgreens both increased the age for purchasing cigarettes from 18 to 21. But why is this?

Even though I don't agree with this logic, having a larger consumer base would create more profits, especially for users between the ages of 18-21 who might use cigarettes very frequently. If I were interested in making profits, I would not have made this decision. So why did it happen? Do these drugstores just have bad economists?

According to the article, the drugstores have received "more than 1,550 warning letters from the FDA and has been hit with 240 financial penalties since 2010." In addition, Walgreens has been under a lot of pressure ever since the FDA called them the "top violator" among pharmacy chains for selling tobacco products to minors.

After knowing this, it is safe to assume that they made the correct decision. How will these two large drugstores influence others? Will the government finally place a nationwide age restriction of 21? Will they start a trend among other drugstores like CVS?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-23/walgreens-will-raise-the-age-for-buying-tobacco-products-to-21

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 26, 2019 at 9:59 AM

    That's interesting! More and more companies are receiving more and more pressure to abide by certain guidelines and therefore have to make decisions that aren't necessarily in their best economic interests, which shows that morals are what keeps a company from making profit which is another reason why a lot of innovation is in a moral gray area currently. The legal age for alcohol was raised to 21 when the federal government told states they had to enact this regulation or they would cut 10% of their highway funding.

    http://mentalfloss.com/article/19437/why-drinking-age-21

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