Posted on 05/20/2019 10:30:44 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose home state of Kentucky was long one of the nation’s leading tobacco producers, introduced bipartisan legislation Monday to raise the minimum age for buying any tobacco products from 18 to 21.
The chamber’s top Republican, who said he was making enactment of the bill “one of my highest priorities,” issued his proposal at a time when the use of e-cigarettes is growing and underage vaping has soared, raising concerns by health experts. The measure would apply to all tobacco products, e-cigarettes and vapor products and was co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., whose state has also been a major tobacco producer.
“Kentucky farmers don’t want their children to get hooked on tobacco products while they’re in middle school or high school any more than any parents anywhere want that to happen,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
Fourteen states, including Arkansas, California and Virginia, have enacted laws raising the minimum age for tobacco sales to 21, according to the anti-smoking Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. So have 470 municipalities, including New York City, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Way to be stupid, McTurtle.
Shouldn’t be federal priority to manage age issues for anything....should be left entirely to each state to view/manage.
But I will say this, if he wanted to do some age ‘game’....go after the credit card companies and mandate that no one under the age of 21 can be given a card unless fully employed (40 hours per week).
except to set age to vote in federal elections and enter military
Why not just wrap this up and simply ban tobacco? If it is as dangerous as established and observable by family members dying amongst us then it should be simply and completely banned.
That won’t change a great deal if the under 21’s are determined to use tobacco. It’s so much easier these days to use tobacco than a decade or two ago. the E-Cig comes in many different forms. 6th and 7th grade school kids will at times use an e-cig right in the classroom and remain undetected because the vapor dissipates so quickly.
Look up one of the most popular brands called Juul.
It comes in all kinds of ‘flavors’ and aromas.
There doesn’t have to be a big blue cloud of curling ‘smoke’ if you don’t want to produce one. Between e-cigs and cell phones everywhere you look, I don’t see how teachers deal with it. Maybe they just don’t react to it anymore. Student’s have always loved sneaking some forbidden activity right under their teacher’s noses.
I understand all the bitching at Mitch, but maybe we are looking at this in the wrong light. Could he be trying to focus on raising the smoking age to 21, in order to counter the dems thoughts on lowering the voting age to 16. The more “adult” things that are tied to the 21 age mark, wouldn’t that make it harder to lower the age to vote? Just my 2 cents, and probably way off base. Just throwing it out there.
Why does this need to be federal legislation again? Can states not decide their own legal smoking ages?
this is utter silliness.
In regard to your comment on 16 years old to vote vs 21 to smoke, that’s a very good point! And I think entirely probable.
I see your point. Although Mitch isn’t everything we’d like in a majority leader, I would never dismiss him as a Never Trump traitor.
Actually, I think the voting age should be raised to 35, except for honorably discharged veterans.
Use of illicit drugs in the last month including marijuana are now over 25% in self reporting by high school seniors. Compare that with 10% who may have vaped, 3.5% who smoke cigarettes daily and 7% who have used tobacco in a hookah in the past month.
How effective would this new program be? Let’s compare to alcohol use in the last month - 17% of high school seniors self reported that use, with over 10% binge drinking in the last two weeks. This is after 3 decades of a 21 year old drinking law uniform across the land.
Why the focus on vape products? Simple math really - half of all cigarette sales goes into government hands in most states. Much of those funds must be spent on anti-tobacco efforts. Illicit drug use is by far the most prevalent problem, yet 75% of all efforts in schools this year will be anti-tobacco in some form or another.
Our focus is utterly lost. Then again, medication assisted drug treatment (MAD) is skyrocketing among 18-21’s, hooking them on methadone for a lifelong daily treatment for their months long heroin addiction.
And lower voting age to 16 too.
Does Cocaine Mitch have a primary challenger?
Mitch enjoys wasting time with this kind of stuff. Outside of judges, it gives him an excuse for not really accomplishing anything.
No. We tried primarying him a few yrars ago. The dumbass voters here never learn.
I don’t know, but it’s crazy how everything is moving away from 18 now. Alcohol, smoking and guns seem to be all moving towards 21, while Democrats want 16-year-olds voting and 12-year-olds “transitioning.”
I hate all these “Feel Good” age restrictions on everything.
I joined the Navy in 1962 at the age of 16 and became part of the Cuban Missile Blockade. I couldn’t smoke or drink or vote, although I did own a Winchester 22LR firearm that I purchased when I was 13 so that I could take gun safety and marksmanship in school.
I’d go on Liberty with my shipmates when we were in port, but I couldn’t order a beer.
In my opinion, if you are old enough to defend you country, then you should have all the rights of a citizen.
Not a federal question.
Though if you are old enough to vote or be sent to war, you can buy smokes.
Ain’t these turds in DC have anything better to do? Maybe like secure our EFFIN Border for starters. No, they have to attack our liberties.
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