18 or 21?

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CT Lawmakers Want to Raise Smoking Age to 21

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Young people may have to wait a little longer before they can legally light up a cigarette in Connecticut.

The legislature is considering a bill that would raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21. The bill is being discussed in a public hearing today before the legislature\'s Public Health Committee.

One teenager told lawmakers that she supports the bill. She says such a law will make it difficult for younger teens, such as 16-year-olds, to get their hands on cigarettes. Younger teens typically know a lot more 18-year-olds than 21-year-olds who might buy them cigarettes.

Yet another lame attempt by lawmakers to "protect the children". It all should be one age 18 or 21. They should pick one and be done with it. As AMENDMENT XXVI to the US Constitution sets 18 as voting age that should be it for everything. Come on you can join the Army at 18 but not drink or smoke?

In Britain you have to be 16 to smoke but that will probably get raised to 18 in the next few years. I think 18 is about right for smoking, but 21 is too high because you end up with a lot of young adults who would like a drink or some cigarettes but cannot legally buy one in a pub or a supermarket but can move out and live on their own. Also, having the age limit set that high would just criminalise more young people. It's not as if kids don't go and buy booze from supermarkets and go in pubs underage as it is and a lot of places will serve them if they 'know' them.

Last edited by Tequila on 05 Mar 2007, 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If they want people to smoke less, raising the age one can do so legally won't help. The only way they can accomplish anything like that would be tougher public smoking laws.

the law didn't stop me from drinking young.

law didn't stop me from smoking young either...i just chose not to and didn't start till i was 19.

When I was in College the law had just changed it was a joke. Feel good legislation is a bad idea it teaches people laws are silly and unenforceable just like many gun laws in the US. To think this is my state I voted for these people never again

Opposed, but ultimately (like gambling, which I am not too keen on) it is a state issue. I support one standard, 18 or 21, not both.

ADDENDUM: It is illegal to sell to minor's in PA, but you see plenty of minors smoking. Even if not a single store sells to a minor via fake IDs, there would still be minors getting cigarettes from adults. The fact is while it is illegal to sell it largely is not illegal to "light up" because it would be a massive drain on police resources to have cops confiscate cigarettes from teenagers.

My opinion is that the Feds set the standard by amending the Constitution allowing them to vote and by receiving people for active military service at 18. People can and are legally signing contracts at 18. If you would prefer some hodgepodge of contractual law state to state I think it would be a mess

They'll get it, anyways. Legal age should be "what the kid looks like" then hand him all the cigs he/she wants. Deny 10 year olds, obviously. if someone else wants to buy cigarettes for a 10 year old, let them.

the age should just be 18 for drinking and smoking.

I believe it should be 18 for everything smoking, drinking, gambling, contracts, voting and military service and be strictly enforced not the shotty way they do it now

Agreed; like just the other day in Seattle, the authorities found this one website that found ways to get minors into clubs by supplying fake ID's and whatnot for a price. They found the website after they found about 10 minors at a time in a single club, and so they may shut down the club for letting too many minors in. I don't really know why people would want to start drinking at this age, since our bodies are still developing. It's said that our brains start the process of deteriorating at the age of 26, so I don't want to speed up the process by drinking too much. I think it's just a popularity issue (like "Everyone else is doing it!" kind of a thing), yet some people drink because they're depressed and whatnot. Anyways, I just think it's sad that a club wouldn't recognize minors when they saw them. They had ID, but then most people that are around 14 don't look as if they're 21 years old, especially 10 at a time! lol/not-so-lol.

If you can vote you deserve every right of an adult citizen.

thats crap. 18 is already too high of an age, 21 even higher.
if a 16 year old wants to smoke, he will smoke. if he has to find an 18 year old he knows to buy it for him, he will. if he has to ask a crack head stranger on the street to go in and buy it for him, he will.

If you are old enough to die for your country then you are old enough to drink and smoke.

I agree.

It's not like they buy pot at the corner store but they seem to be able to get it