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Smoking age 21?

8.5K views 79 replies 38 participants last post by  querulous  
#1 ·
I'm not someone who's in favor of smoking, but this seems a little weird. Seems like kind of a big thing to yank away from people so suddenly, and without really any warning.

I know this wasn't an election issue, and the conspiracy theory machine is starting to spin up in my brain.

Any thoughts?
 

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#2 ·
18 to vote and have sex but 21 to drink and smoke? I realize the younger people tend to vote democrat and we have a democrat house so I understand the difference. After years of reading medical reports, I think smoking should be banned. I also don't feel smoking related illness should be covered under public medical programs. Of course I think E cigarettes are a scam just like medical marijuana.
 
#3 ·
It won't stop it at all. We couldn't smoke during boot camp until we got to maybe two months in. I'd have had been better had I finally stopped it but the way they did it gave me a bit more freedom and I joined that. We still got cigarettes from the advanced recruits we lived above. Although they knew the risks, they'd pass on smokes to us. We could sneak them a little.
 
#28 ·
That is the one Reason why I don't understand the Government stands on Marijuana. The taxes they would raise would double cigs and probably Alcohol.

I have no Dog in this Pony Show. I don't Smoke-Drink or do any illegal substances. I haven't done any of the above in over 35 years.
 
#8 ·
Yet the left thinks 16yos are mature enough to vote.
 
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#14 ·
Smoking or what ever type of nicotine delivery system is irrelevant. They are still weak and defective people that cannot cope with life without a chemical crutch.

There is no use in regulating it. Regulations only keep the addicts alive longer so the drug dealers can profit off them longer.

The best way to get people to stop is either for them to die or see other dying. Then a few will stop. Most will kill themselves.

It is best not to interfere with natural selection when that selection is free will. So efforts should go to the innocent not those that choose to kill themselves with drugs.
 
#25 ·
Does anyone know of a medical reason for using nicotine?
It's used to treat Parkinson, dementia and ADHD - it helps the brain to focus. Combined with Haldol, it is used as treatment for Tourette's syndrome.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Nicotine_It_may_have_a_good_side

As a child my grandfather used to blow smoke in my ears when I would get an earache. It turns out there is some science behind the old Native cure. Nicotine is extremely drying and as well as having a slight analgesic effect.
 
#26 ·
Personally, if you can join (or be compelled in times of draft) the military at 18, then you should also be able to buy a long gun or hand gun, smoke, drink, vote or do anything else any other adult can do. 16 is too young, 21 is too old. Making people wait until 21 for anything retards the development of learning to be a responsible adult in all aspects of life.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
#27 ·
Is 16 too young? There were instances in the 1700s of three-masted sailing vessels being commanded by boys of 14.

In today's social-media world I'm inclined to raise the voting age to 30, and leave everything else at 18.

--------------------------

Nicotine has been used as a pesticide by gardeners for centuries, btw. Very toxic to insects.

https://www.hunker.com/12166118/how-to-make-a-nicotine-insecticide
 
#36 ·
Normally I believe in freedom.
But I have to make an exception for smokers.
Why?

Its how I see smokers behave. Its the thousands
of butts I have seen scattered over the decades.
Other thousands I have seen thrown down still
lit, with no regards for the consequences.

As a young child I breathed the secondhand smoke
until my father got sole custody of me at the age of
12. My mother smoked 3 packs a day and could never
quit until she died.

There is a logical alternative to smoking. I say we legalize
vaping, keep it affordable, and outlaw smoking.

What's safer for the smoker, vaping or smoking?
I don't care. I only care about the rest of us.
 
#37 ·
Back in the day cigarettes were called "coffin nails." Every kid knows cigarettes can kill. That danger is what actually leads kids to smoke, as in "I aint scared of dying," It's another way of showing your peers how you are not a kid anymore or what a rebel you are. Why else would a kid start smoking? Give me one reason. It's not because it smells good.

So when you raise the legal smoking age to 21 you only add to a 16 year old's reasons to start smoking. Not legal till 21 holds even more danger than at 18, enhancing the goals of grown-uppeddness, rebellious, coolness... images teenager want.

21 might be politically good but on the ground it's going to make the problem of teenagers smoking worse, not better.
 
#38 ·
That's like saying speed limits only make more people drive faster.

You may have a point for certain stupid teens, yet there are others
who won't go to the trouble of breaking the law.

Many of these people won't be able to pay for their own medical bills.
Others won't put out the fires they start with their habit.

Smoking fact: Nicotine is MORE addictive than cocaine, morphine, heroin or alcohol – affecting BOTH sides of your brain. The research also revealed that nicotine attachment only stimulates the DA neurons for a few minutes, while dopamine levels in the nucleus remained elevated for MUCH LONGER.

If you want to kill yourself, do us all a favor, do it quickly, in a much more
efficient way.