Kids should not smoke, vape or use any tobacco products. It's a goal we share with public health, policymakers, parents, youth-serving organizations and many others who care about young people making healthy decisions.

As the nation's leading tobacco companies, we have an important role in reducing underage tobacco use. For more than two decades, Altria's tobacco companies have made significant investments to prevent kids from using tobacco. These efforts include:

supporting programs and organizations that positively influence kids and their decision not to engage in risky behaviors like tobacco use;
providing parents with tools to help them raise kids who don't use tobacco;
supporting trade programs, retailer training and legislative efforts that help prevent underage access to tobacco products; and
taking steps designed to limit the reach of their brands and marketing materials to unintended audiences.
Today, underage use of conventional tobacco products is at the lowest levels in a generation. Retailers are more effective at keeping tobacco products out of kids' hands. And the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation covers nearly every aspect of how tobacco products are manufactured, marketed and sold.

However, the significant rise in youth use of e-vapor threatens to undermine the hard-fought gains made in preventing underage use of conventional tobacco products. Tobacco manufacturers, regulators, and policy-makers must immediately do more to reverse this trend. We support the FDA's commitment to leverage its authority and resources to take additional steps to address these new, emerging issues associated with underage use while continuing the progress that's been made on traditional products.

Altria is committed to being part of the solution. In addition to our long-standing efforts, we supported legislation to raise the minimum age for all tobacco products to 21. We believe this is the most effective step available to reverse rising underage e-vapor rates. Data shows that youth under 18 get tobacco products – including e-vapor – primarily through social sources, like friends or siblings who are 18 or older. Approximately 80 percent of high school students in the U.S. turn 18 years old before they graduate. By raising the minimum age to 21, no high school student should be able to purchase tobacco products legally. In December 2019, federal legislation raised the legal age of purchase for all tobacco products to 21, making it the law of the land.

Additionally, in February 2019 we announced our planned investment of an additional $100 million over four years, beyond our current investments in underage tobacco prevention, to help address youth e-vapor use. We are working with stakeholders, including the FDA, to determine how best to allocate these resources to complement existing efforts toward the goal of preventing youth tobacco use.