Ever since March, a chorus of legislators across the country has begun pushing to change the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. This isn't just a coincidence. It is tied to a study done by the Institute of Medicine, which concluded that by doing so, smoking among these young adults would decline by 12 percent. Three-quarters of adults and 70 percent of smokers surveyed favor raising the smoking age.

In June, the higher smoking age law went into effect in Hawaii. Last week, a Philadelphia legislator introduced a bill to lift the legal smoking age to 21, but several influential Republicans, who control both houses of the General Assembly, said the bill's chances are "slim to none" this legislative session.The House Democrat who introduced the bill is Vanessa Lowery Brown, a committed nonsmoker who believes the state should ban smoking in all public venues, including all bars and casinos. "Enabling our young people to have access to a product that has been medically proven to have more deleterious effects than alcohol … seems not only contradictory but imprudent," Brown said.Smoking has decreased dramatically in this country, including among teenage smokers.Education programs, changing attitudes and the higher cost of smoking because of continuing increases in taxes have resulted in the falling smoking rate.Editorial writers across the land have been taking up the fight for a higher smoking age. Some proponents even recommend the age limit should be 25, but most concede this is unattainable.Along with Hawaii's new age limit of 21, four other states have moved the age to 19, and New York City and a few other cities and communities have raised it to 21. When New York City raised the age limit to 21 in 2013, it also raised the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes to $10.50. Most observers concede it is the cost of the cigarettes which has led to fewer smokers among 18- to 21-year-olds.Trying to legislate morals has rarely worked in this country. We saw it with Prohibition. People who wanted to drink found a way to do so, and gangsters were only too happy to provide the illegal booze. It's tough to figure out when to treat young people as adults. We send them off to war at age 18, and we give them the right to vote or participate in other activities at that age. But we don't allow them to drink until they are 21.Education and public service television spots have helped drive down the number of smokers of all ages. Let's put the money we are spending in trying to up the smoking age limit into more education efforts, especially when we know that this approach is working.I agree with Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health. He believes the way to continue to trend toward lower tobacco use is by increasing prices of tobacco products, implementing smoke-free laws and producing hard-hitting media campaigns.I also agree with Andy Hoover of the American Civil Liberties Union, who believes that restrictions on vices rarely, if ever, work. "You don't have to engage in prohibition to get people to give up damaging habits," Hoover said. I agree with his assessment.Prohibiting these vices doesn't work whether it is smoking, alcohol marijuana or pornography. As Hoover says, "People will find a way to get their vices."By BRUCE FRASSINELLItneditor@tnonline.com