Over three years ago, the Texas Legislature raised the legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 18 to 21. Since then, tobacco use in the Lone Star State hasn’t budged. Clearly, increasing restrictions on smoking isn’t preventing minors from lighting up. In fact, regulations like this may actually be contributing to the problem. If policymakers really want to make a difference, they should focus on enforcing existing current age laws more aggressively and encouraging the legal purchase of cigarettes by lowering excise taxes.
There are a number of reasons why raising the legal age to purchase cigarettes was never going to reduce smoking. Firstly, America suffers from high rates of tobacco smuggling, and Texas is no exception. It is estimated that over one-fifth of all cigarettes purchased in Texas were smuggled into the state. While we don’t have good data on where these illegal tobacco products are sold, it stands to reason that if underage smoking was happening before, it’s still happening now.
Furthermore, available evidence indicates that our current tobacco ID enforcement is woefully lacking. A 2000 FDA experiment showed that 27% of minors were able to purchase tobacco illegally. A 2002 study found that 70% of those under 18 were not asked to show proof of age before purchasing cigarettes. A more recent experiment found that 22.8% of minors were sold tobacco despite a lack of ID and that minors were 3 times more likely to be sold tobacco if they showed any ID at all.
A law is only as good as its enforcement. Fake IDs are commonly used, and minors can ask older friends to purchase cigarettes on their behalf. With a high level of smuggling and poor local enforcement of existing laws, no new Texas bill would move the needle.
The latest laws may be ineffective, but there are other ways to keep cigarettes away from minors. One solution that progressives in Congress have proposed repeatedly is to raise excise taxes on tobacco products. The Biden administration tried to double the tobacco tax just last year, both to raise revenue and to dissuade future buyers.
However, doubling the excise tax would do little more than make the poor even poorer. Tobacco products are disproportionately consumed by low-income people, meaning that nicotine taxes are one of the most regressive taxes in America. Excise taxes directly lead to higher prices, and any increase in the price would directly harm some of the most financially vulnerable.
Surprisingly, lowering the price of cigarettes could be part of the solution. The data shows that the amount of illegal cigarette purchases is directly correlated to how much cigarettes cost. High prices mean more profit for cigarette pushers. Decreasing the excise tax on tobacco products would undercut black-market retailers and push more people to purchase their smokes legally.
Incentivizing legal cigarette sales is a good thing, provided that the police ensure that stores don’t sell to minors. When combined with more stringent enforcement of current laws, lighter cigarette taxes would result in fewer cigarettes in minors’ hands while also easing the financial burden on low-income people.
We don’t need new laws or higher taxes to protect young people from tobacco. Lowering the Texas excise tax on cigarettes and enforcing current laws is the smartest and most humane solution to protect our fellow Texans.
Sean-Michael Pigeon is a Young Voices fellow based out of Fort Worth, Texas. He has been published in USA Today, The Boston Herald, National Review, and more. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Yale University.Â
