Under 21? Lowe's Won't Sell You Some Products

WMUR ^ | May 13, 2003 | Associated Press

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Anybody was thought to be a sniffer was a laughing stock retard. What happened?

There's more retards...and its acceptable. The success of public schooling.

[AngryJawa]

Given my druthers, I'd like to push these things back to 21 as well, but I'd settle for consistency on one age or the other. Discostu is exactly right about the mixed message these selective restrictions send.

[discostu]

But why are they dumb? I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie, 14 year-olds getting married and starting families, how did our youds become so much dumber in the intervening years. See I don't think a person can learn discipline and self-restraint by having things denied them by others, how can somebody learn not to drink to excess when they aren't allowed to drink at all? All we seem to do is move the crisis period back, the longer it takes to expect them to behave responsibly the longer it's going to take them to learn reponsibility.

[ctlpdad]

More people are killed every year by falling while in the shower.

I say outlaw showers! (just kidding)

[discostu]

The excuse is always huffers, taggers are considered a nuisance but they aren't "hurting themselves" (vandalism seems to have stopped being considered a real crime sometime in the 60s or 70s, I don't know why).

[husky ed]

Ham hocks and beans.

I let my wife huff.

[ican'tbelieveit]

If you haven't instilled maturity and discipline into your children long before puberty hits, you are correct, you will see them become wild things at that stage. And don't hope that they will suddenly snap out of it if you haven't done the same thing, it just doesn't happen that way.

We are also commanded to "train up a child in the ways that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Notice it says child, not teenager. Notice it says, when he is old, not teenaged.

[_Jim]

But how much does that actually happen out in the world?

EVER pass a rowdy group of middle-school students and *wonder* why the area reeks of the smell of strong solvents?

I did here within this last year - on a weekday when school was out. After I had passed by the same residence several times (I was riding a bicycle on a preset course) and noticed the rather *strong* smell of a solvent every time I passed the end of this one block I couldn't figure out WHAT was going on that could produce such strong odors as there were *no* service trucks parked on the street.

On my last pass through the area I encountered a rather boisterous group of youngish teens coming from a residence in the area where that *strong* odor of solvents was coming from ... my theory after thinking about it *afterwards* considering all the facts on what was going on? A 'huffing' party on a day-off from school when the parents weren't home ...

[discostu]

Now that you mention it I'm thinking the last project I did that involved spray paint was a good 4 years ago and Ben Franklin's had it all locked up, I don't remember if they actually carded me but it was definitely locked up. Could be an AZ thing though, the press announcement said Lowes was doing it to get a consistent policy in line with a wide variety of state regulations.

[Hatteras]

"...rocket engines are being treated like dynamite..."

My son came home from school a few weeks ago and he and his buddy grabbed some model rockets and headed to the local ball field as they had on numerous occasions before.

This time, a police officer pulled up and told them that they needed to postpone their rocket launching until further notice. No grief, he was polite and apparently had model rockets as a youngster so he was pretty understanding. He cited the latest terrorist threat level and the minor fact that they were right under the flight path for Raleigh/Durham International.

As I later replied to my son, "DOH!"

[Richard Kimball]

. You're in a good spot to judge, of the people coming in with serious psycho-active problems what's the percentage that are huffers compared to hopheads, cokers and alcoholics?

It's not really an either/or situation. Sniffing is a poor man's high. You can buy a can of spray paint and get high as a kite for a couple of days. Most of the sniffers will do just about anything that gets you brain-fried, and because sniffing is about the cheapest way to get high, most of the ones I encountered were on the tail end of the downward spiral. They would snort coke or drink or do heroin or whatever if they could afford it, but they couldn't even keep it together enough to steal or prostitute themselves enough to get that much money. Oh, BTW, only a few of them were kids. Most were aging hippies or in their late twenties.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Mine was in NM. Not sure if it was a legal matter. I can't remember buying paint anywhere besides Walmart to judge that by. But I do remember the register popping up an age verification message just like with alcohol, tobacco.

Also, in regards to huffing. I watched some cops show or something one evening that showed a pair of brothers who had been doing it their whole lives. They were behind a dumpster behind some business, eating rotten food out of it. The paint was spread out all around them. They were emaciated, and incoherent. They were also so high they could not walk to the police cars awaiting to transport them to rehab.

[Billthedrill]

Kids these days. Injecting heroin directly into the brain through the eyeball was good enough for my generation...

[tbpiper]

At 18 I can legally vote, enter into contracts, go to war (you know-unimportant stuff). But I wouldn't be allowed to buy a drink or a can of spray paint. Sure, that makes sense.

Being a youngster, I shouldn't expect you to understand these things. You have to realize that it is always the product's fault for it's own misuse wheter it is paint or glue or hand guns or alcohol or cars driven by drunks. Until we get all of these offending products banned, life will never be completely safe. It's also a good thing that nobody has ever drowned in water.

[appalachian_dweller]

Last I heard, it was the responsibility of the PARENTS to raise their kids, NOT LOW'S.

If the parents don't care, let the kids kill themselves.

I'M SICK OF BEING PUNISHED FOR OTHER PEOPLES NEGLIGENCE!!

This kind of CRAP is what is going to bring this country down.

[discostu]

Can't say I've encountered a rowdy group of middle-school students since shortly after I'd have been in that group, a long long time ago.

So I guess the follow-up question would be does your state already put this stuff behind lock and key and has it helped at all?

This could all be location location location. I am in Tucson, we are on one of the major pot pipelines, as I recall from my youth prices were low and supply was excellent. We just might not be a good place for huffers.

[On the Road to Serfdom]

Don't outlaw showers-just have Lowe's to stop selling them to people under age 21.

[Carlucci]

Where I grew up it was the teenagers. They spray paint into an empty coke can, then pretend to drink while they inhale deeply.

But before too long, they were so stoned they would walk around with the can held up to their noses, not realizing that everyone now knew what they were doing.

When they made it harder to get spray paint, the started huffing GASOLINE!

[hobbes1]

Besides, any kid tht knows anything will go to a grocery store and buy Carbona....Sheesh.

[discostu]

That actually makes sense. What I was thinking about is that a number of toy and hobby stores have dropped rocket engines (there were a few stories running around on FR last year) for a variety of excuses. One thing I've learned is when that happens annoying laws are getting passed and the item is becoming too much of a hassle to be profitable. And rocketing is such a cool hobby, it's creative, it's loud, and the kids get good excercise chasing down their rockets; it's a shame to see it getting regulated to death.