Why didn't they try to raise the smoking age in the 90s or 00s?

[darklordoftech]

Why didn't they try to raise the smoking age when teen smoking was more common, second-hand smoke was a bigger issue, and the young were less politically engaged?

[Mr. Smith]

The tobacco lobby was probably too powerful at the time, and has only shrunk now thanks to vaping and weed legalization.

[pbrower2a]

Smoking has been on the decline since the 1960s. I was eight when the Surgeon General's report came out, and it convinced me well that I did not want anything to do with smoking. I have since stayed clear of cancerweed.

I'm guessing that tobacco use peaked among people born in the latter part of the 19th century -- just think of chain-smoking film icon Humphrey Bogart dying of lung cancer. in his fifties. The Lost Generation had nothing stopping them from smoking those coffin nails early, and they didn't find out about the dangers of smoking until it was too late.

Cigarettes are the perfect commodity for profit for manufacturers and retailers alike. They created brand loyalty, and they could always be sold at list price as an impulse purchase. Until the 1960s, even kids could buy them and treat their use as a rite of passage in the sense that driving a car or (far better) voting is a rite of passage.  They insinuated themselves into the culture, and they could not leave it easily. The only problem was that they killed their customers.     

[Fuzzy Bear]

The raising of the drinking age coincided with a campaign against drunk driving.  Before DUI laws were strengthened in the 1980s, most nations in the world viewed our DUI laws as a joke.  Younger drivers were both driving drunk more frequently AND driving with less experience behind the wheel, which is not a positive mix. 

I hate cigarette smoking and tobacco use, but it's not something that contributes to traffic deaths in a significant manner.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Tax revenue also explains the reluctance to do this. On average the States raise two and half times as much tax revenue from tobacco compared to alcohol and that despite the fact that far far more people consume alcohol. So if politicians want to look tough on tobacco, rather than raising the minimum age, the tendency has been to raise tobacco taxes.

[darklordoftech]

Tax revenue also explains the reluctance to do this. On average the States raise two and half times as much tax revenue from tobacco compared to alcohol and that despite the fact that far far more people consume alcohol. So if politicians want to look tough on tobacco, rather than raising the minimum age, the tendency has been to raise tobacco taxes.

I'd think that this would be stopping it now, yet they've been raising the minimum age since ~2015.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Tax revenue also explains the reluctance to do this. On average the States raise two and half times as much tax revenue from tobacco compared to alcohol and that despite the fact that far far more people consume alcohol. So if politicians want to look tough on tobacco, rather than raising the minimum age, the tendency has been to raise tobacco taxes.

I'd think that this would be stopping it now, yet they've been raising the minimum age since ~2015.

Tobacco tax revenues have been flat since 2010 or so. There's no more blood to be squeezed from the tobacco turnip.

[darklordoftech]

Tax revenue also explains the reluctance to do this. On average the States raise two and half times as much tax revenue from tobacco compared to alcohol and that despite the fact that far far more people consume alcohol. So if politicians want to look tough on tobacco, rather than raising the minimum age, the tendency has been to raise tobacco taxes.

I'd think that this would be stopping it now, yet they've been raising the minimum age since ~2015.

Tobacco tax revenues have been flat since 2010 or so. There's no more blood to be squeezed from the tobacco turnip.

Still, willingly giving up a source of tax revenue doesn't make sense to me.

[Fight for Trump]

They did... the federal government set the national minimum age for tobacco sales in 1992 to 18.

[Koharu]

Some locales did try. I honestly don't remember where anymore, but I do remember hearing about places that tried (and failed) to do so.