Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the June 21, 2015, Sacramento Bee.

There’s no pressing health reason not to raise the smoking age to 21 in California. Smoking kills, and nine out of 10 tobacco users say they picked up the habit as teens.

But the proposal, which passed the Senate early this month and has moved to the Assembly, is hardly where the action is when it comes to kids and tobacco. Just as Uber has displaced taxi cabs and AirBnB has stolen the thunder from hotels, so has smoking been disrupted.

E-cigarette use among adolescents tripled between 2013 and 2014, according to the most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey. Meanwhile, regular cigarette use among high school students has declined.

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