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Should the Age to Buy Cigarettes Be 21?
PJMedia ^ | 1/14/2014 | Theodore Dalrymple

Posted on 01/19/2014 8:20:38 AM PST by rktman

Just as a more permissive attitude to cannabis gains momentum in the United States, so does a more restrictive attitude to tobacco. It is as if there were a law of the conservation of prohibition: if one substance is permitted after having been prohibited, another will be prohibited after having been permitted.

While Colorado permits the use of marijuana by those over 21 for any purpose, New York City prepares to prevent sales of tobacco to anyone under the age of 21. An article in a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine comes out strongly in favor of this more restrictive approach to the sale of tobacco. The arguments it uses and those it refutes are instructive.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Education; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: adulthood; health; nannies; nannystate; pufflist; riskybehavior
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Well, since we are allowing the "youts" to stay on their parents insurance until they're 26, I'm thinkin' that the new "legal" age be raised accordingly for everything. Votin', drivin', drinkin', smokin', sex, joining the armed forces, buying cars. Of course at the same time the ganja tokin' age needs to be lowered to 16 or at least have some provision keeping tokin' violations off the "youts" permanent record. Just post signs in the 7-11's stating that no one under a certain age can buy cigs. That'll put an end to kids pickin' up the habit. Right? Um, no.
1 posted on 01/19/2014 8:20:38 AM PST by rktman
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To: rktman

Not if you can die for your country at 17.


2 posted on 01/19/2014 8:23:25 AM PST by silentreignofheroes
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To: rktman

I miss the smell of a cigar or pipe once in a while but I just don’t miss the smell of cigarettes.


3 posted on 01/19/2014 8:24:38 AM PST by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
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To: rktman

Pick an age. I don’t care what it is. Before that age you are a child. After that age you are an adult. Period.

This parceling out of rights and responsibilities one at a time is ludicrous.


4 posted on 01/19/2014 8:27:40 AM PST by DManA
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To: rktman

Make it 51 for all the good that it would do. Everyone under 25 is probably switching to pot anyway.


5 posted on 01/19/2014 8:29:01 AM PST by Mike Darancette (Do The Math)
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To: DManA

To many age levels here. Age of consent, age to drink, age to join military, age to buy cigs, age to remain covered on parents insurance. I agree. Pick an age an make it THE standard. Kids are confused enough these days.


6 posted on 01/19/2014 8:32:23 AM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: silentreignofheroes; rktman

When I was 18 we could drink and smoke.


7 posted on 01/19/2014 8:32:26 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: rktman

It would probably made the maths easier for those C-store clerks who lack advanced degrees if we just made everything “20”. To prove it, just go buy something that costs, say, $15.25 and give them a $20 bill and a quarter to pay for it, thinking you made their change-making life easier...

I guess it comes down to what the objective of restricting sales of tobacco products to minors is, however “minor” is defined.

If the goal is to protect their health, that’s one thing. When does a person grow old enough to take responsibility for damaging their own health?

But if the goal is to protect them from an addictive substance, then shouldn’t equal or greater attention be directed toward “e-cigs” which serve as delivery systems for the active ingredient (nicotine) without the accompanying hazards of inhaling smoke to get it?


8 posted on 01/19/2014 8:33:43 AM PST by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: rktman

Suggest 101 for both cigarettes and weed w/o Rx.


9 posted on 01/19/2014 8:34:26 AM PST by ex-snook (God is Love)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When I was 16 we DID drink and smoke. LOL! Whether or not we “could” didn’t matter much to us. Hell, I remember buying cigs for a quarter in the machines and you got a pack of matches with them at the gas station. (Hmm. Matches/gas station? Maybe not a good mix. LOL)


10 posted on 01/19/2014 8:35:03 AM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: rktman

You have to wonder if the whole idea is to promote a substance that impairs your brain AND pollutes your lungs with smoke-instead of one that just pollutes your lungs. WILL the restrictions against smoking tobacco apply to pot? Why would a plant that affects your mind be acceptable to society and government unless the idea is to encourage the populace to ‘dumb down’?
How will it go over in daily life if a man with a cigarette is told to put it out, while in a public place,and the pot smoker is allowed to toke on? Is pot smoke GOOD and tobacco smoke BAD to breathe? If I complain that I don’t want to smell/breathe pot smoke, will I be obeyed or vilified as backward and discriminatory?

As for age at which you can impair/injure yourself legally with legal substances: whatever the legal age is to vote should apply. You should be responsible for the consequences, whatever they are, and that means legal age.


11 posted on 01/19/2014 8:35:25 AM PST by ClearBlueSky (When anyone says its not about Islam...it's about Islam. That death cult must be eradicated.)
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To: rktman

How about 43 or uh....12?


12 posted on 01/19/2014 8:38:16 AM PST by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: rktman

I say 20 (I like even numbers).


13 posted on 01/19/2014 8:39:43 AM PST by DManA
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To: rktman

You are an Adult at 18.

Either change the age of majority, or just stop it with the sliding scale Nanny State BS...


14 posted on 01/19/2014 8:40:05 AM PST by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
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To: ClearBlueSky

Oh, no doubt the tolerant left will call you backward and vilify you should you choose to make your opinions known. Got no doubt about that. And, after watching some of these “man on the street” interview/question videos, are we sure the voting age shouldn’t be raised to 30? LOL! Or at least a civics test before you get your voter card. If you have to even have one.


15 posted on 01/19/2014 8:40:22 AM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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To: rktman
"potential consequences of tobacco "....The age should be 18, they're old enough to make a choice by then.

But wait until smoking makes them ill and they find out Obamacare doesn't cover them because tobacco smoking was warned to be dangerous by the government...

16 posted on 01/19/2014 8:41:03 AM PST by virgil283 (When the sun spins, the cross appears, and the skies burn red)
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To: rktman

I was talking about legally drinking and smoking. Of course kids did so before they were authorized to. BTW, we had beer vending machines in the barracks in Korea.


17 posted on 01/19/2014 8:41:09 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Never was so hungover as the day after my 18th birthday. Ah, the good ol’ days...


18 posted on 01/19/2014 8:41:17 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: rktman

I have been saying the same thing. Don’t forget 26 for law enforcement and firefighting. We don’t want someone’s child to die in a fire...


19 posted on 01/19/2014 8:42:18 AM PST by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: MrEdd

Roger that!


20 posted on 01/19/2014 8:44:58 AM PST by rktman (Under my plan(scheme), the price of EVERYTHING will necessarily skyrocket! Period.)
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