Posted on 11/29/2015 3:22:48 AM PST by SMGFan
Massachusetts is considering raising its smoking age to 21, citing public health concerns as well as the desire to keep tobacco products out of the hands of teenagers, CBS News is reporting.
Boston is already considering raising the smoking age to 21 inside the city limits, but another plan, backed by academics and public health advocates, would make the smoking age uniform throughout the Bay State. Several Massachusetts communities have already raised their smoking age to 21, including the Boston suburb of Needham, which was the first municipality in Massachusetts to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at inquisitr.com ...
I think getting all the lardbutts off their couches is for the common good. See how easy it is? I can justify any freedom-robbing intrusion into a citizen's life with your logic. There is really no limit once you've put of the moving goal posts of "the greater common good". There is always a greater 'greater' in the pipeline.
I have no problem with applying a sin tax to unhealthy food as is done with tobacco and liquor; the problem is that the definition of “unhealthy” will vary from year to year. People can get obese just eating too much healthy food, anyway.
LOL! I thought you already had to be 21 to buy cigarettes and alcohol and that the law was working out really well. Politicians are idiots. The dumbest among us.
I don’t think your at the right site. Try nannystatebusybody,com. It’s more in tune with you governmrnt control over people rather than this site that is focused on individual liberty derived from God.
I think your a big government control freak. What freedoms are you not willing to give away?
Do you believe that it is the role and function of government to use taxation as a means of social engineering?
I’m actually for all kinds of freedom, but oppose addicting young people to substances before they are really adults. Let it all wait until 21; 18 year-olds are stupid. As for other laws (seatbelts, for example), I see no point in giving an infant the death penalty because he/she has stupid/indifferent parents.
No, I see it as a way to have the consumer put money away in advance for the medical care they eventually expect others to provide. Be responsible for what you do to yourself, and properly fund the medical care in advance.
“So 18 will be too young to smoke but old enough to vote Democrat. Do I have it right?”
where do those underage smokers get their cigarettes? And politicians apparently do not want to prohibit underage smoking. They pass laws restricting where you can smoke. Only underage purchasing is illegal.
Need to raise the VOTING AGE to 21 !!
Then the government need not be involved. Insurance already exists, and until homobamneycare, it involved voluntary associating within a free market. Taxes are not voluntary. Nor are helmet laws. Nor is an age limit which discriminates against certain majority aged citizens.
If the government wasn’t going to force us to pick up the medical bills, then I’d agree - but they DO force us to pick up those bills.
Can you show me where in the Constitution the government has the power to socialize medical costs?
No, but I can show you in my payroll taxes, the Medicaid & Medicare programs, and now ObamaCare. They are very real.
It’s funny that you think he solution to homocare is to leave it in place, and let the government invade even more aspects of private life, rather than overturn it and go to a free market. Very telling. And once again, by your logic, fat people should be forced by the government to exercise and run every morning at the point of a gun. For the “common good.” After all, whatever the government orders, we must obey. There is no choice.
I would love to see ObamaCare repealed, but both parties want it. The government shouldn’t tell fat people to do anything, but shouldn’t force me to pay for their diabetes treatment either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.