The legal age to purchase tobacco in Illinois will be 21+ come July but Walmart is increasing the age restriction everywhere. The megastore will no longer be selling certain vapor flavors.

In an effort to detour underage smoking and vaping, Walmart is making some big changes in September. In a statement at Walmart.com, U.S. Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer, Walmart Inc. John Scudder said any tobacco sales to someone underage is one too many.

Even a single sale to a minor is one too many, and we take seriously our responsibilities in this regard. So today, we sent a letter back to the FDA outlining additional measures we’re taking to keep tobacco out of the hands of minors.

Those measures include increasing their tobacco sales age requirement to 21, lock up all nicotine products from customer access, and train and educate all sales associates response for tobacco sales. But perhaps one of the biggest measures involves electronic nicotine delivery systems, also known as vapors or vapes.

We are in the process of discontinuing the sale of fruit- and dessert-flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems.

You can read the full statement here and read Walmart's full letting to the Food and Drug Administration here.

These changes will be in effect September 1, 2019.


JB Love is ½ of  Q98.5's Lil Zim & JB In The Morning, weekday mornings from 5:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on TwitterInstagram, and Facebook.

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