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Can You Buy a Vape at 18?

22nd Jan 2024 | 218 | Dickson

Over the last decade, vaping has displayed signs of massive improvement, and it has become highly popular with customers compared to traditional cigarettes. Vaping has this trendy feature that can help you quit smoking in the most convenient way. With the vast popularity of vaping, there are certain setbacks that have emerged from a certain group of vape users, for example, curious teenagers.

In the quest to keep adolescents and children away from using vape products, there are regulators and legislators with strict measures. The age of vaping is among the laws and regulations that have been installed to ensure good morals are preserved in society. Unlike Alcohol, where the minimal age for consumption is enforced, it is a different thing when it comes to vaping. If the minimal age for vaping is enforced, it will help curb or reduce teen vaping incidents.

It is never an easy task for legislators to decide on how old one should be to be allowed to vape. Enforcing the law can also be a hard thing since lawmakers will not be able to punish the retailers as they may resolve to supply vape products on the black market. This can be made possible if lawmakers are not aware of the danger of these products to teenagers.

You will come to realize that in most countries, vaping is regulated as a standalone consumer product category individual product, or it is not specifically regulated. There are certain countries where vaping is entirely banned. When it comes to the legal age of when one should start vaping, in most countries, the age is matched with the age when one is regarded as an adult. This age varies in most countries, but it is 18 and above. In the U.S., the legal age for vaping is 21, and this is the country that provides the largest vape device market.

This article brings to light what age is legally acceptable for one to start vaping and get to know whether 18 is the right age to vape.

Legal Age to Buy Vapes in the U.S

In 2019, the tobacco control groups and concerned parents passed a federal Tobacco 21 law. This new regulation was finally signed by President Donald Trump on 20th December of the same year. This law only covers cigarette and tobacco-related products. This law was highly triggered by the fact teenagers had started indulging in vaping at an alarming rate.

In the USA, it is unlawful for a retailer to sell a tobacco product to anyone below the age of 21. Remember, being in possession of or purchasing the banned tobacco products cannot be penalized; instead, the retailer who sells to underage patrons is held responsible. The determination of the legal age for using vape devices was still left to the federal states to decide, and hence, a state may have its own minimum age restriction.

Can you Buy a Vape at 18? The Push for Tobacco 21 Laws

In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration's Deeming rule succeeded in establishing a federal ban on the sale of vaping products to all those under the age of 18. The deeming rule influenced the tobacco-free devices and e-liquids to be tobacco products and hence fell under the federal restriction that makes them not to be sold to minors.

The interesting part is that when the law that restricts the minimum age of vaping to 21 was implemented, the federal states had already made their own age restrictions on the same. New York City had already implemented the Tobacco 21 law in 2014. Most countries had already increased the legal age from 18 to 21 years even before Congress passed the overall. Over 19 countries have increased the age limit to 21 years.

The exponents of the legal vaping age increment beyond 18 are to break the age gap where these young adults are influenced by the adults. If the age limit remains 18 years, then these teenagers are in the best position to buy vape products and then influence the younger ones into using tobacco products. This can adversely affect the development of younger children in high school.

The increment of legal vaping from 18 to 21 will prevent those between 18 and 20 from vaping or smoking. The restriction is meant to regulate the vaping rate among young members of society. This is due to the fact that if these young adults are fully exempted from accessing and using vape products, they will definitely opt for cigarettes, which have even worse health effects.

The Legal Age to Purchase Zero-Nicotine Products

The Deeming rule recognizes e-liquids and e-cigarettes as tobacco products or as being part of tobacco products. This is because these vape products can be used to modify the performance of other tobacco products. A zero-nicotine e-liquid is regulated the same way as tobacco products. The legal age for accessing the zero-nicotine is still 21 years.

What led to the decision of this regulation is that zero-nicotine e-liquids can be used with tobacco products that include atomizers and mods. This is what the FDA used to justify this particular decision to regulate access to zero-nicotine products. Other products that are termed tobacco products include atomizer coils, computer software, and batteries. It is illegal for a retailer to sell all the mentioned products to any person under the age of 21.

Legal Vaping Ages Across the World

Putting the countries that have completely banned vape products and those that have no vaping regulations, you are going to get to know the nation's legal adult age to access vapour products. "Can you buy a vape at 18?" is a concern for most people when it comes to knowing the right age for vaping in a given authority. There are countries that feature a national legal age, and in others, the legal age depends on an individual state or province. The best example is Canada, which has a national legal age of 18, whereas most territories and provinces have set the legal age as high as 19 years.

It can be a chance that you are travelling to a different country with your vaping product or you want to access vape products; you will be in the best position to do so if you first check the rules and regulations in the country. Below are the various legal ages for vaping in some of the listed countries;

Age 21

  • Guam
  • Palau
  • Ethiopia
  • Philipines
  • United States
  • Niue
  • Honduras

Age 20

  • Japan

Age 19

  • Turkey
  • Republic of Korea (South Korea)
  • Jordan

Age 18

  • Bhutan
  • Brazil
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Denmark
  • El Salvador
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Italy
  • Ivory Coast
  • Lithuania
  • Luxemburg
  • Malta
  • Moldova
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • South Africa
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Senegal
  • Wales

When Does Adulthood Begin?

It is almost impossible to determine when adolescence ends and adulthood commences. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is unique in every individual. This critical decision is left in the hands of legislators who are expected to vote on the legal age of when adulthood begins. This limits when a young person is old enough to vote, consume Alcohol or tobacco or even get employed in the military.

Legislators go ahead to identify the age at which an adolescent has most adult traits and where decision-making is the key factor. As per the Tobacco 21 law, it sounds more extraordinary as the prohibited young individual can marry, drive cars and do other adulthood activities and responsibilities. This is why the legal adult age is different in various countries all over the world.

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