Bill to Raise Smoking Age Would Hurt Convenience Stores, Vape Shops, Retailers Say

Hailey Mensik

A bill on its way to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk would raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco and nicotine products from 18 to 21 statewide, a move praised by public health advocates and opposed by convenience stores and other Illinois retailers.

While anti-smoking advocates argue the bill would prevent teens from developing lifelong nicotine addictions, convenience store operators and vape shop owners say it would drive younger customers to the black market, online or to neighboring states. Chicago raised the legal age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 in 2016.

Victoria Vasconcellos, owner of Cignot, which has five vape shops in Chicago’s western suburbs and two in Colorado, said she mainly has an older clientele, yet she believes the bill targets Illinois retailers, not young smokers.

“It is not going to do what it’s supposed to do,” Vasconcellos said. “It’ll harm small businesses in Illinois, probably increase smoking (and) burgeon the black market. It’s a ridiculous bill.”

Bill Fleischli, executive vice president of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association and Illinois Association of Convenience Stores, agrees that the bill could expand the black market for traditional and electronic cigarettes. He said 87 percent of Illinois convenience stores are within 50 miles of the state border and 19 percent are within 10 miles of the border.

Fleischli worries that while crossing state lines to purchase tobacco and nicotine products, teenagers will buy ancillary items, like snacks or gasoline, spending money in neighboring states like Indiana or Wisconsin, instead of Illinois.

“Very few people buy one item at a convenience store,” he said.

The Illinois Department of Revenue estimates raising the legal age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 would decrease cigarette and sales tax receipts statewide by $41 million to $48 million in the first year.

Curt Adams, president of Illinois Ayers Oil Co., shares Fleischli’s fear that 18- to 20-year-olds at his Quincy store in western Illinois will just take their business across the border to Missouri.

“They can cross borders,” Adams said. “This needs to be a federal bill. With this happening in just Illinois, this bill is not a solution.”

Kathy Drea, senior director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest, said raising the age to 21 could help deter high school students from the allure of ever-present e-cigarettes and vaping devices, such as the Juul – a sleek nicotine vaporizer that holds more than half of the nearly $2 billion e-cigarette market, according to the latest Nielsen data compiled by Wells Fargo.

“If you look at the tobacco use rate for youth, it’s up to around 30 percent, and that’s mainly because of the e-cigarettes,” Drea said. “The 18-year-old in high school often buys tobacco products for the younger age group, the 14- through 17-year-olds. If you take away that supplier, the younger group has a much more difficult time obtaining tobacco products.”

Even some smokers think raising the legal age is a good idea.

Thomas Remble, director of research at the Impact LGBT health and development program at Northwestern University, said there’s a big difference between 18- and 21-year-olds. “I’m totally in favor of keeping people from starting smoking at early ages,” he said, while walking down Michigan Avenue on Thursday and smoking a cigarette.

Drea said she believes the bill, which passed the Senate in April and the House in late May, would have a positive economic impact. She said raising Illinois’ smoking age would ultimately reduce statewide health care costs by preventing tobacco-related diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, lung disease and forms of cancer.

She argues that the Department of Revenue estimate of the bill’s fiscal impact is overstated.

“It assumes that all current 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds will quit using tobacco immediately if this bill takes effect, and while we certainly wish that were true, it’s estimated only about 15 percent of the age group will actually be able to quit using those products,” she said.

Along with Chicago, 23 other Illinois localities have raised the smoking age to 21 in recent years, according to the Illinois Lung Association.

California, Oregon, Hawaii, New Jersey and Maine, as well as at least 310 U.S. municipalities, also have laws restricting the sale of tobacco products to people under 21. However, Drea said there’s not yet enough data to track the public health and economic impacts of such laws.

Rauner’s office did not respond to a request for comment about his position on the bill.