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Hawaii’s Smoking Age Rises to 21

Mariah OConnell / Flickr
Mariah OConnell / Flickr

Hawaii will become the first state in the nation to raise the minimum age for tobacco sales to 21 beginning on January 1st.  A secondary measure will prohibit the sales of electronic cigarettes (E-Cigarettes) to anyone under 21.

Hawai‘i's State Department of Health will begin a three month campaign to remind the public about the change following beginning Friday.  Following that grace period police will begin enforcing the ban.  Those under twenty-one caught buying tobacco will be fined $10 for each offense and $50 for repeat offences.

Although smoking rates have drastically decreased, the use of electronic cigarettes has risen drastically jumping more than 300% in the last 4 years.  Lola Irvin is with the Department of Health’s Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion Division.  

Businesses caught selling to underage buyers will be fined $500 for the first offence and up to  $2,000 for each subsequent offence

The US Marine Corps will also participate with the new law, saying that any enlisted personal under 21 could face still penalties. 

Nick Yee’s passion for music developed at an early age, as he collected jazz and rock records pulled from dusty locations while growing up in both Southern California and Honolulu. In college he started DJing around Honolulu, playing Jazz and Bossa Nova sets at various lounges and clubs under the name dj mr.nick. He started to incorporate Downtempo, House and Breaks into his sets as his popularity grew, eventually getting DJ residences at different Chinatown locations. To this day, he is a fixture in the Honolulu underground club scene, where his live sets are famous for being able to link musical and cultural boundaries, starting mellow and building the audience into a frenzy while steering free of mainstream clichés.
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