SAN FRANCISCO – On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to raise the city’s legal tobacco buying age to 21, CBS/KPIX-TV reports. The city joins more than 100 other U.S. cities that have increased the tobacco purchase age in recent years. The San Francisco law will go into effect June 1.

The National Association of Tobacco Outlets had requested the city to hold off on voting on the issue, given the threat of lawsuits other state localities have received related to raising the tobacco buying age. A statewide initiative to change the tobacco purchase age from 18 to 21 went nowhere in the California Assembly last fall.

Across the country in Rhode Island, state Rep. Teresa Tanzi introduced a measure that would change the tobacco buying age from 18 to 21, WPRI-TV reports. “I think the key piece to this is that changing it to 21 takes tobacco entirely out of high schools,” she said. “It removes the social source for most kids who begin smoking by having a friend who is a little bit older or looks a little bit older who is able to purchase tobacco.”

Tanzi added that the benefit to young people’s health is more important than any loss of sales. “I want to remind folks that it is one item in their convenience store,” she said. “And that people who are between the ages of 18 and 21 constitute 2% to 4% of all of those tobacco sales.”

Her bill includes e-cigarettes as well. She’s waiting for the bill to have a hearing with the House Finance Committee as the next step toward passage.

Read more about increased age limits for tobacco purchases in the March issue of NACS Magazine.