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A bill circulating through Oklahoma legislature could potentially increase the legal age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 20. Republican Representative Ann Coody presented the bill to the Oklahoma Committee of Public Health Feb. 14, 2012, where it passed with two-vote majority.

If the bill became law,  the legal age to purchase and possess tobacco would increase gradually each year. Coody has proposed that every Nov. 1 the age would increase until it reached 21 in 2015. Adults who have already reached the legal age would not be affected by the bill because the gradual increase would rise as they aged. 

Other states like Alabama, Alaska and New Jersey have raised the tobacco age to 19. Oklahoma would be the first state in the U.S. to raise the legal age to buy tobacco to 21, according drugfree.org. 

Coody told the Oklahoma Committee of Public Health she put the bill together after a request from a doctor she visited. She hopes this request bill will allow young adults more time to decide whether or not to use tobacco products. People between the ages of 18 and 24 are the most easily addicted to tobacco, said Coody in an audio clip of the meeting. 

“I think it is a good thing,” Bill Zhou, a graduate assistant at OU said.

“The main purpose is to protect the minors, after all smoking is not really something you have to do.”

It was made clear at the meeting that the bill would not affect the sell of tobacco on American Indian reservations. The legislation has no control over what the reservations do or sell. This could give the reservations the ability to sell tobacco to those still under the desired 21 year age limit. However, the reservations usually try to abide by the U.S. laws when selling to non-reservation citizens, Coody said.

Those opposing the bill are worried about the amount of income the state would lose. The state already loses taxes to smokers who chose to buy cigarettes at the tax-free reservation stores and many worry that loss would become much more. Cigarettes and many other tobacco products are taxed in the rest of the state, therefore raising the age by three years could lead to a large loss in taxes for Oklahoma.

Coody believes that the deficit in taxes would be made up for by the lessened need for tobacco related healthcare. Tobacco is the most preventable cause for disease, affecting over 440,000 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Representatives backing the bill believe that the long term savings in healthcare costs would overshadow the tax losses. 

University of Oklahoma freshman Charlie Lamb began smoking at 18. Lamb, now 19 and still smoking, does not agree with the bill.

 “We can go fight in a war at 18, but can’t smoke until we are 21? That seems kind of ridiculous, I think 21 for anything is crazy,” Lamb said. 

The bill is still working its way through Oklahoma legislation and has not yet become a law. While healthcare and tax losses come into play for those voting for or against the bill, it seems that there is a lot more in the air than secondhand smoke. 

LEAD IN: University of Oklahoma freshman David Beard gives his opinion on the proposed bill to raise the age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21 on Feb. 19, 2012. (0:20)

Clockwise: University of Oklahoma freshman Charlie Lamb smokes a cigarette outside his dorm Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. University of Oklahoma freshman David Beard smokes a Marlboro cigarette with his roommate Charlie Lamb on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012.Beard holds his Marlboro box after lighting a cigarette Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012.