Walgreens To Raise Tobacco-Buying Age to 21 on Sept. 1

Drugstore giant Walgreens is increasing the tobacco-buying age at its stores to 21 come September, according to a recent CNBC article.

The Food and Drug Administration called out Walgreens and other brands in February for unlawful practices relating to the sale of tobacco products to minors, with Walgreens as the top offender; approximately 22 percent of Walgreens locations the FDA inspected caught employees illegally selling tobacco products to minors, CNBC noted.

As a result of the call out, Walgreens’ policies will tighten come Sept. 1, when customers will have to be at least 21 in order to buy tobacco products.

“We’ve seen positive results from other recent efforts to strengthen our policies related to tobacco sales, and believe this next step can be even more impactful to reduce its use among teens and young adults,” Richard Ashworth, Walgreens president of operations, said in a statement.

As state and federal laws regarding the minimum age to buy tobacco continue to change, Walgreens is the first of the implicated corporate and franchise-owned retailers to make changes to its policies to remain in the FDA's good graces.

Read the full story here.