Posted on 04/24/2013 2:44:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
New York's proposal to ban purchases by those under 21 is off-base.
As thoroughly awful as everyone knows cigarettes to be — still the No. 1 cause of premature death in this country — public officials walk a blurry line when they try to reduce smoking's terrible toll. As long as they lack the will to ban tobacco altogether, they face all sorts of ethical, legal and political problems in regulating a product that is, after all, perfectly legal.
High tobacco taxes, critics say, unfairly punish smokers, who are disproportionately low income. Banning advertising of a legal product raises free-speech issues. And can tobacco companies really be forced to put large graphic warnings on their own products to discourage customers from buying them? Does that make sense?
Now, the New York City Council, backed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is considering another tactic: making it illegal for anyone younger than 21 to buy cigarettes. Currently, anyone 18 or over can buy a pack.
Bloomberg has taken a lot of ribbing for previous nanny-state proposals involving salt and trans-fats and, especially, for his plan to ban the serving of soft drinks larger than 16 ounces. The new proposal would, at least theoretically, make cigarettes difficult to obtain by those who are most vulnerable to peer pressure and tobacco marketing. Prevention makes sense because smoking is so addictive that more than 85% of those who try to quit relapse.
Yet the good intentions are outweighed by the proposal's problems. For one thing, it's practically doomed to have minimal effect. A 20-minute bus ride will transport any Bronx resident to neighboring Yonkers, where 18-year-olds would still be allowed to buy as many cartons as they wanted. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, nearly 90% of smokers
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
What angers me is my government telling businessmen what they cannot do in their places.
Bar owners should have the right to be a smoking bar or a non smoking bar..patrons can then decide which one to go too
I though it was abortions . . . 3,300 every day for about 1,500,000 per year. What am I missing?
My senior softball team is getting sponsored by a bar/restaurant that we always go to after our games here in S.E. Michigan.
The bar actually built a heated enclosure with ceiling ventilation on the back of the building to accomodate its smokers........
One has to wonder why they went to all that cost and effort to accomodate smokers if they weren't afraid they would lose precious business...........
But hell, the govt. knows best.........
Most cigarette smokers lack sleep for long periods of time at some period or other in their lives, IMO (infantry-related duties, night/swing shift employees, laborers with long drives home, all). Quitting requires repeated efforts, healthier exercise and persistent sleep habits for many to quit. There are also noticeable physical changes for older folks who quit. Don’t blame or browbeat smokers. Encourage them.
Vehicle accidents are most likely the number one cause of premature death, BTW.
What do I have to lose? My Freedom? HA!!!
Some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them.
They're not "accidents" anymore. They are now "crashes".
"Accidents" just happen. "Crashes" have a cause or two for which somebody can lose a significant portion of their net worth.
It's like Obama saying we would find out "who" and "why" the boston bombers did what they did. I still haven't heard "why".
I have suspected for many years that the cigarette manufacturers, back when the prohibition first started, were actually pushing for the laws that prohibit merchants from selling tobacco to minors. At that point, smoking was becoming less popular all around. I think that someone figured out that a great way to get teens to take up the habit was to make it taboo for them.
I have no proof of my claims. Just a hunch.
Before about age 21, children are more susceptible to addictive substances, as their brains are not fully mature, and adjust themselves to be more easily addicted, and harder to break out of the addiction.
The closer they get to 21, the harder it is to program their brain this way, and after 21, it is hard for them to get addicted, and easier for them to break their addiction.
Importantly, getting addicted to anything before 21 makes it easier to get addicted to other addictive substances for the rest of their lives as well.
For this reason, it is not out of the question to consider a complete addictive substance prohibition against minors under 21. Not just illegal drugs, but especially alcohol, the most dangerous drug, nicotine, caffeine, as well as strict controls for addictive pharmaceutical drugs as well. This means drugs against ADHD/ADD, antidepressants, addictive painkillers and other trendy pharma.
(I will add that addiction applies to psychological conditioning as well. This is why socialists, cultish religions and military recruiters prefer those under 21, as their brains are more malleable.)
On the positive smoking front, my other grandmother (mothers side of the family) smoked for years, but quit a while ago. She is closer to 100 than 90. Genetics must play a part.
I used to smoke too, but quit very easily on 10/02/1980. Anyone can quit if they really want to. If you want to smoke I don't care and I do wish you luck. Some people do live a long time as a smoker.
The downside is that smokers are an easy target for sin taxes. Now they're coming after junk food. I wonder what will be next.
i mind government both encouraging smoking by tobacco subsidies, and penalizing smokers and turning them into Goldstein (1984 ref) - playing both sides and somehow remaining free from criticism.
i don’t mind private businesses factoring in people’s stupid personal choices into health policies, etc.
Simply put, freedom is not possible if you are not allowed to make “bad” choices for yourself and suffer the consequences. Or in other words, freedom involves making choices and taking responsibility and when the choices/responsibility are taken away so is freedom.
The land of the free and home of the brave is now just a distant memory...
I’ve been smoking for over 60 years.
Turned 80 last September——but I’ll probably still die young because that’s what the “experts” say. :-)
.
Well, it's caused by that and global warming.
Freedom IS NOT safety. True freedom is the ability to do anything with your body that you want, even if other people thinks it is not good to do.
The problem is that too many people want the gov’t to be parent to OTHER people. Their attitude is: when I get to do what I want that's liberty, but when Joe gets to do what he wants that's "license".
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