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Tim Nelson
St. Paul

St. Louis Park weighs raising tobacco purchase age to 21

Cigarettes for sale
The St. Louis Park City Council has scheduled a July 17 vote on an ordinance that would raise the tobacco purchase age to 21.
Gene J. Puskar | AP 2015

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Eight weeks after Edina became the first Minnesota city to raise the tobacco buying age from 18 to 21, its west metro neighbor is close to making a similar move.

The St. Louis Park City Council has scheduled a July 17 vote on an ordinance that would raise the tobacco purchase age to 21. If approved, it would take effect at about two dozen St. Louis Park retailers Oct. 1. The measure appears to have enough support for passage.

"St. Louis Park can prevent a lifetime of nicotine addiction and tobacco related cancer, disease and death," Matt Flory, a city resident and incoming president of the Minnesota Public Health Association, told a public hearing on the matter last week. "St. Louis Park can be a leader in the fight against tobacco and the fight against cancer."

Statistics show that if youth don't start smoking by the time they're 21, they likely never will, he added.

Council Member Steve Hallfin, though, said the ordinance will not get his vote because it would deny young veterans the right to buy tobacco even though they have risked their lives for their country.

"Now they come home and they're a veteran and they walk into a Holiday station store and ask for a pack of cigarettes, in uniform. And we say, 'Oh, no, no. You're not an adult in St. Louis Park,'" said Hallfin.

Council Member Sue Sanger, who sponsored the proposed measure, said she was pleased with public response in the first hearing. Many of those who spoke in support of raising the purchase age were high school students, she added.

Edina's new ordinance raising the tobacco sales age to 21 takes effect on Saturday. In southern Minnesota, the Mankato City Council is also considering raising the tobacco purchase age to 21. A bill to raise the age for tobacco sales statewide has been introduced in the Legislature.