INDIANAPOLIS — With President Trump's signature on the law, the federal government now says people need to be at least 21 years old to purchase tobacco products. Not wanting to break the law, the folks at Tobacco World are now a 21-and-over establishment.
"Everything in our shop is completely legal, and he likes to keep it that way," Stover said.
Stover is talking about his boss, who is not waiting on the Food and Drug Administration to release its final update to the tobacco law.
"I've smoked for 25 years," Stover said. "I hate it, but it's an addiction."
Stover said he understands the new law and knows it was done with young people in mind to try to cut down on them smoking, but he also said it is bad for his store.
"I don't want anybody that's young to even start picking up the habit," he said. "It's bad for business. It's bad for all kinds of stuff. It's going to create chaos."
Stover said there is no use fighting the change, but he thinks the sudden nature of it should serve as a reminder to everyone.
"I wish everybody would follow politics a little more closely, even myself. I don't follow it as much as I'd like to because you never know what they're going to sneak in there," he said.
The Indiana Food and Fuel Association is not happy about how quickly the FDA is forcing businesses to implement the change, which impacts around 10,000 businesses and around 500,000 employees statewide.
They called it "wildly irresponsible" and they want the FDA to clear up the confusion they said it has caused.
