Springfield City Council approves raising the age for purchasing tobacco

Young adults in Springfield will now have to wait a little bit longer before they're legally able to purchase tobacco and e-cigarette products. 

The Springfield City Council on Monday night voted 8-0 in favor of a proposal to raise the age of purchasing products containing nicotine from 18 to 21. 

The measure is part of a broader, national effort to discourage young people from getting addicted to nicotine through widely marketed e-cigarette products, such as Juul. 

It received broad support from Springfield's robust medical community at previous meetings where doctors spoke about how young people's brains were especially susceptible to addiction and how smoking can have profound, long-term negative health effects. 

At Monday's meeting, Councilman Matthew Simpson cited the community's broad support in making his decision. 

"I’m proud to be voting for this bill tonight," he said. "In addition to the powerful testimony we heard, I appreciate this was a community wide effort based on evidence-based policy."

Councilwoman Phyllis Ferguson had a personal connection to the proposal, saying her father was a smoker most of his life and died early of lung cancer. 

"I know what the result of a lifetime of smoking is, and if I can do something to push that back to 21 instead of 18, I would do that in memory of my dad tonight," she said.

The ordinance is now in effect, and anyone with questions should visit the Springfield-Greene County Health Department's FAQ page at health.springfieldmo.gov/T21.

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