Sri Lanka Mulls Raising Tobacco Age to 24

The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) of Sri Lanka wants to increase the legal age to purchase alcohol and tobacco from 21 years to 24 years, reports The Nation.

“We hope to increase the legal age to 24 years because medical science has proven that 24 years is the proper age when the brain is fully and correctly developed,” said NATA Chairman Samadhi Rajapaksa at a Dec. 29 NATA panel discussion. “We will be the first country to make it 24 years.”

The authority wants to propose this amendment to the NATA Act No.27 of 2006 in 2022, as part of a wider range of reforms that are occurring to update the existing law and regulations.

Earlier this year, more than 50 percent of respondents to NATA survey said cigarettes should not be legal in Sri Lanka.