Will Illinois follow Chicago and raise age to buy cigarettes to 21?
Illinoisans who want to buy cigarettes might have to wait until they're old enough to drink under a new proposal in Springfield.
But opponents say 18-year-olds who are old enough to join the military shouldn't have to wait until they're 21 to buy a pack of smokes.
State Sen. John Mulroe, a Chicago Democrat, proposed statewide legislation that mirrors what Chicago approved recently - banning the sale of tobacco products to people under age 21. Now, 18-year-olds can buy cigarettes.
The legislation would include e-cigarettes.
For the last 10 years, the state has been passing laws to ban smoking in public spaces, raise the cigarette tax and put tobacco products behind the counter at stores, Kathy Drea, vice president of the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest, said.
"(Such measures) have all worked to decrease smoking prevalence in youth and adults," Drea said.
But critics, like state Sen. Pam Althoff, a McHenry Republican, say the legislation is restrictive.
"We can send our men and women off to war at 18. And if they're old enough to make that decision, then they're old enough to make (the decision to smoke)," she said.
The law could have unintended consequences for small businesses like convenience stores and gas stations, says Tanya Triche, vice president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
"People have options, and for retailers close to the [state] border, we want to make sure we protect their business," she said.
Members of the association with stores in both Chicago and the surrounding suburbs saw an increase in cigarette sales in their suburban locations after Chicago increased the cigarette tax in 2014, Triche said.
But state Sen. Terry Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, disagrees. Instead, he said this bill could set a trend.
"[Opponents] said the same thing with smoke-free Illinois bill," he said. "Then Wisconsin went smoke-free and Indiana too. If we change the age from 18 to 21, you'll see other states do it as well."