BC Health Minister Terry Lake is floating the idea of increasing the legal smoking age to 21 in this province.
Lake says where the measure was taken in certain U.S.. states positive results were realized:
"There are jurisdictions in the United States, California is the latest one, Hawaii has done it, and over 200 local jurisdictions in the United States that have raised the age of smoking from anywhere from 18 and 19, up to 21. And what they've seen as a result of that is that the rate of smoking among young people, particularly in high school, has gone down quite dramatically."
Lake says if you can delay the onset of smoking in young people it's less likely they'll take it up later. He says fewer people addicted to nicotine means we have healthier citizens and takes stress off the health care system.
Lake says this is just an idea at this stage, and not government policy.