MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - During public hearing Wednesday, Texas lawmakers discussed raising the age for purchasing tobacco from 18 to 21.
The bill would make it illegal to sell cigarettes, e-cigs, or any other tobacco product to anyone under the age of 21.
A Midland vape shop, Cloud City says a lot of their business are people between the ages of 18 and 21.
The owners of the business believe it would be hard to take permission away from somebody when they’ve been able to legally perform that act in the past.
“You know you gotta think that someone’s who’s been 20 years old and now all of a sudden they can’t buy something and they’ve been buying it the last two years,” said Sam Stevenson, co-owner of Cloud City Vape Shop.
In addition, the owners believe that raising the legal limit would only encourage more young adults to get tobacco products illegally.
“When you’re young you want to do all the things that you can’t do, so really this is just a much healthier alternative to the things that they’re going to do anyway,” said Stevenson. “A couple times a day we’ll have somebody underage try and come in and try and buy a vape and they get ID’d right away. That three times, four times a day will only increase to like 10-20 times a day if I have to deal with 18-21 year olds."
The owners believe keeping the age at 18 is healthier because the young adults are able to buy regulated products and be educated before using them.
One shop owner, Amber Delarosa, does not think the problem lies in the age of the purchasers but rather in the knowledge of the merchants.
“If anything were to be regulated it should be the type of people who are allowed to open up a vape shop” said Delarosa.
Delarosa said the dangers involved with vaping stem from a lack of education, not the actual products.
If the bill were to pass, the business will continue on as usual.
“We would just continue what we are doing... there’s nothing we can change... nothing to change... we would just have to keep on trucking..” said Delarosa.
While the cape shop owners are not in support of the bill, if it were to pass, they would comply with the new legal age to purchase their products.
Currently in Texas there are at least 430 communities that have already raised the legal age to buy tobacco, including San Antonio.
Additionally, there are seven other states that have already raised the legal age to 21 to purchase tobacco products.
