The Connecticut legislature held hearings this week on a proposal to raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21, the Associated Press reported March 5.

The measure would give Connecticut the highest smoking age in the U.S.; most states set the age at 18, but Alabama, Alaska and Utah set the legal smoking age at 19.

"By increasing the age, we can stop many young people from getting their hands on cigarettes," Jessica Adelson, 17, told the legislature's Public Health Committee; Adelson, a resident of Hebron, proposed the bill as part of an essay contest on improving the world.

Federal studies show that 90 percent of smokers start at or before age 18. However, studies are mixed on whether higher smoking ages would result in less youth smoking.

"Anything that legislators can do to make it more difficult for kids to start smoking is a good thing, but beyond that, it's not clear whether there's any real hard evidence to support the idea that raising the age for being able to buy tobacco products has any real effect on keeping kids away from tobacco," said Joel Spivak of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "If it does, we're all for it."

A spokesperson for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said that youths who can fight wars, vote, and marry should be free to buy cigarettes, too. "To say that they can't buy a pack of cigarettes seems a little inconsistent from our viewpoint," the spokesperson said.