NYC age for buying cigarettes could be 21 AFTER years of striving to set a national agenda for curbing smoking, New York City may set a new bar as officials propose to raise the minimum age for buying cigarettes to 21. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unveiled a proposal on Monday to increase the threshold from 18. That's the US minimum. Quinn says the measure aims to stop young people from developing a potentially deadly habit. Officials say 80 per cent of the city's adult smokers started before they were 21. A retailers' group and a smokers' rights advocate are questioning the effectiveness and fairness of the proposal. Four states and some communities have raised the age to 19. At least two towns have agreed to raise it to 21.