Two States Look to Raise Legal Smoking Age to 21

Newsmax.com ^ | February 21, 2014 | Thomson/Reuters

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Lawmakers in Utah and Colorado are promoting legislation to raise the legal age for tobacco use to 21, a higher standard than imposed by any other state, saying they want to discourage young people from picking up a lifelong smoking habit.

Supporters say keeping tobacco out of the hands of young adults will save thousands of lives, even as critics complain that Americans who are old enough to vote and serve in the military should not be deemed too young to decide on their own if they should smoke.

In a dramatic display of the risks of smoking, lawmakers in Utah, a heavily Mormon and conservative state, hosted a wheelchair-bound and oxygen-tank-dependent 86-year-old longtime smoker at a committee hearing this week.

"I think a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm that picture," Betty Lawson, who suffers from smoking-related pulmonary disease, told a Utah Senate health committee on Thursday.

"Nineteen-years-old, I picked up my first cigarette. It's a creeping, insidious thing that has you before you know it and you can't turn loose," she said.

A Utah bill to raise the smoking age to 21 advanced from a committee hearing in the state Capitol on Thursday and now awaits consideration by the full Senate. If passed and signed into law, the legislation would take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, to allow smokers now ages 19 or 20 to turn 21.

A House committee on health, insurance and environment in outdoor-oriented Colorado also advanced its proposed legislation on Thursday with Democratic support. Republicans voted against it.

The Colorado legislation would grandfather-in current tobacco users between ages 18 and 21.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

First, Congress and the Reagan Administration condescended to young adults by forcing states and DC to raise the drinking age, and now state governments are doing the same thing with smoking.

[nascarnation]

Like we said with Mayor Bloomberg...

Go ahead and take that abortion pill kid, just don’t wash it down with a large soda or or smoke a cig after sex.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Old enough to risk getting your face shot off in Afghanistan, but not old enough to drink, and now, not old enough to smoke in Utah and Colorado?

Welcome to the USSA!

Nanny State PING!

[KC_Lion]

I was 20 when I joined the Air Force.

Old Enough to Buy a Shotgun, not a Handgun.

Old Enough to Smoke, not old enough to Drink.

I am 25 Now and the Government STILL considers me a child.

The Nanny Statists can go get Bent.

Shoot, whats the Legal Age to Get Married Anymore?

[nascarnation]

Is it legal to smoke weed in Colo when you’re 18?

[berdie]

I guess the Colorado 20 year olds will just have to smoke pot instead.

[Reddy]

All a part of turning adults into mindless, dependent children.

Stay on your parent’s health insurance until 26.

College until you are 30.

No drinking until 21.

No smoking until 21.

Next, the ptb will change age at which one is legally responsible to 21.

[autumnraine]

Lady your judgement probably wasn’t much better at 21 than 19.

[irishjuggler]

a wheelchair-bound and oxygen-tank-dependent 86-year-old longtime smoker at a committee hearing this week.

You know, it's unfortunate for this gal that she has health problems, but as a non-smoker, I can only hope I'll be so lucky as to make it to 86. I know many non-smokers who have left us long before 86. There's sort of this crazy delusion out there that if tobacco didn't exist, everyone would be out there turning cartwheels at 110.

[autumnraine]

EXACTLY !!!

[rktman]

I know many smokers who never had an issue. Ban the cigs but elevate weed. Great idear huh? Second hand smoke is about as dangerous as second hand fa**ts. Just don’t light ‘em. ;>}

[autumnraine]

Yep. My non-smoking mom died from cancer at 52. I would give my left arm to have her another 44 years.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

ptb?

[autumnraine]

Yep. My non-smoking mom died from cancer at 52. I would give my left arm to have her another 44 years.

***************Math sucks. 34 years.

[Gabz]

The interesting thing is, very few stats have laws about tobacco use - just tobacco purchasing.

[grania]

This is insanity. This whole move to make people perfect is does not acknowledge human nature. People need to be informed, allowed to make mistakes, suffer the consequences, and learn from their experiences.

[irishjuggler]

I hear ya. And same here. What we wouldn't do to have our non-smoking moms still around at 86... even with wheelchairs and oxygen.

I don't mean to be too hard on this old lady who testified. She certainly has the right to advocate her views, but I that hope she and her family realize that there are people who don't necessarily look at her and think she got the rawest deal in the world.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Let me get this straight. The government says you have the right to murder a child growing inside of you but you can’t smoke a cigarette? Damn. I’m going to have start doing recreational drugs if I’m ever going to be able to figure out how this commie “Prog” sh*t works.

[Paulie]

Colorado is close to having the dubious distinction of being the “Amsterdam of the West”. And I’m supposed to believe they care about their children’s health?

[RIghtwardHo]

If you are trusted to fight and Die for America as well as vote, you should be able to drink and smoke.