Poll finds strong support for raising the smoking age in Washington

OLYMPIA – Legislation that would raise Washington’s smoking age to 21 has more support than keeping the legal age to buy tobacco at 18, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The survey of 500 voters by independent pollster Stuart Elway said 65 percent of voters back hiking the smoking age to 21, while 35 percent oppose a potential raise. The survey of 500 registered voters was taken Dec. 28-30 and had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The Elway poll was announced at a news conference by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

“Let’s be blunt: cigarettes are too easy to get if you’re a minor,” Ferguson said.

The Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark Miloscia, R-Federal Way, hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate’s Commerce and Labor Committee, but committee chair Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, said he would consider hearing the bill.

In New Jersey on Tuesday, Gov. Chris Christie didn’t act on a bill that would have hiked the state’s smoking age to 21, keeping it at 19.

Washington state’s House version of the bill, House Bill 2313, had its first hearing Wednesday.

The bills under consideration in Washington would also ban people under 21 from buying vaporizing devices and electronic cigarettes. A person who sells or gives tobacco or tobacco products like e-cigarettes to people under 21 would face a gross misdemeanor. Underage people caught with tobacco wouldn’t face penalties.

The state Office of Financial Management estimated that raising the smoking age to 21 would cost the state $22 million in the 2017-19 budget cycle because of the anticipated loss of tobacco tax revenue.