Effects of Raising the Smoking Age in California

California is currently on the brink of having the smoking age raised from 18 to 21. The bill has already been passed by lawmakers, and only needs to be signed by Governor Jerry Brown before it's officially a law. Raising the age of smoking means that you must be 21 to be able to purchase or consume tobacco and e-cigarettes. 

What does this mean for the hookah industry in California? Without a doubt, the ones that will be hit the hardest by this bill are the hookah lounges. Hookah lounges have a storied history with young people under the age of 21 as they are a huge target demographic. Since 18-20 year-old's are not legally able to enter bars, they often frequent hookah lounges as an alternative. If hookah lounges are no longer legally able to serve this large demographic, they will undoubtedly see a sharp loss in revenue.

However, could this mean that an older crowd, previously deterred by the youthful crowd, would now be more keen to frequent hookah bars in the long-term. While a bill such as this would obviously mark up the age of the demographic, it could serve to bring in a larger volume of older age groups as they would feel more comfortable visiting a lounge that housed a similar age-group to their own.

Time will tell how this will play out if Jerry Brown decides to sign the bill. Until then, we can only speculate. Leave your thoughts in the comments below!