Raising the Smoking Age to 21? Young New Yorkers React
Do age-based prohibitions on tobacco and alcohol actually encourage responsible behavior among young people?
Reason TV visited the campus of New York University (NYU) to ask young adult smokers what they think of New York City Council (and mayoral hopeful) Speaker Christine Quinn's new bill that would raise the age to legally buy cigarettes from 18 to 21.
About 2 minutes.
Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Jim Epstein.
Music: "geogre" by The Ananas (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Ananas/THE_ANANAS/05_geogre))
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For those in the camp that kids are a special case and only get autonomous rights at a certain point, how do you decide on what that point is? Is there anyway for it to not be arbitrary?
I don't really have a huge problem with there being a set age where your life becomes completely your own. From a philosophical standpoint it would be nice if the law allowed that age to be reduced upon mutual consent of the child and parent.
The issue becomes almost a non-issue if the state stops passing minimum age laws to begin with.
That is a really novel and clever idea. Set 18 as the default age for adulthood. But then allow full emancipation for anyone over say 14 and under 18 whose parents agree to grant such.
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Or as rihanna568 says, make the 14 year old work as sex slaves with all proceeds going to Planned Parenthood. 12 years old if the parents consent and if the pedophile is a celebrity.
Like when Steve Tyler talked some 15 year old chick's parents into making him her guardian so he could bang her? IIRC, she started a fire his house down while he was on tour.
Actually that was Ted Nugent. I don't know, maybe Steven Tyler did that as well, but I know for certain that Nugent did.
And Woody Allen? I forget the age she was...
There should be one age of majority, whatever age is determined to legally enter a contract. All "adult" things should go along with this.
OT sort of: Chicago City Council is debating raising the smoking age right now too.
Of course they are. They can't afford to let NYC out douche them.
Chicago out douched them all with that goose liver ban.
Chicago out douched them by sending us Obama.
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It's horseshit. And the idiots who are OK with it because it's only a ban on selling will profess shock when the argument in two years is "They can't purchase it illegally, so why can they possess/consume it legally"?
Yep, and where exactly is all that Big Tobacco? money in all of this? When I was in high school, we had a smoking area for the students. Now damn near everyplace indoors and outdoors is non-smoking.
Before you know it, that Big Tobacco? money will have the smoking age above 40.
I wish somebody would look into where the money is in Anti-Smoking. I can't believe that it isn't big business.
The anti-tobacco organizations get a lot of money directly from cigarette taxes, lawsuit settlements, the Master Settlement Agreement, state anti-smoking programs, and the pharmaceutical industry.
I find it ironic that anti-smoking movement likes to portray itself as David fighting Goliath when they receive what amounts to billions each year from every level of government, the opposition isn't even allowed to advertise its products, and the media is sympathetic to their cause.
Yet they act like Philip Morris has reps in every school handing out smokes.
Anything that leads to more people with criminal records is clearly a good thing. And if agreed by the majority, also super constitutional. (sarc)
Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted ? and you create a nation of law-breakers ? and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." Atlas Shrugged
http://www.slate.com/articles/.....ounds.html
My child has allergies. Therefore you must alter your life and put up with a cranky hungry kid so I don't have to assume any extra responsibility for my misfortune.
I hate parents.
The whole food allergy thing these days just seems ridiculous. When I was a kid, we sometimes had a kid with celiacs or something who needed special food and who couldn't eat what other kids had. But nothing was forbidden and no one else had to change their behavior. Now everyone else has to make the accommodations for the few kids who need special diets. It sucks to be allergic to common foods, but those kids are going to have to learn to live in a world full of things they can't eat some time.
It seems really weird, my coworker's daughter had a horrible reaction when one of her friends ate a butterfinger candy bar and then shared a soda with her. Apparently 10% of the population has some form of peanut allergy. I DON'T remember these kinds of problems as a kid (and I'm mildly allergic to nuts [the joke you're about to make is already old, but feel free to get it out of your system])
I don't remember anything like that. And I never remember hearing of any kid dying of some horrible allergic reaction other than to a bee sting once. Yet now, every yuppie seems to have a kid with peanut allergies. And I never seem to hear of any kids in the ghetto or other countries with such things. It always seems to be the child of some American middle or upper middle class helicopter parent.
I am hesitant to say all of these kids are faking it. But if they are not, something very strange is going on here.
Well, John, my theory is that, at least some of the time, parents assume their kid has an allergy in order to "explain" why their little angel isn't perfect. Kid just isn't that smart? Oh, he/she was held back from top performance by allergies!
I think that a lot of the explosion in amorphous "conditions", from allergies to autism to ADD, is a result of it being a cheap and easy excuse for either the kid's failings or the parents' failings.
All of that and "look at me". If you can't have an exceptional kid, you can always have some sort of afflicted kid and get the same kind of fawning attention.
And there are almost no actual instances of kids dying from peanut allergies. These people always claim their child will die, but in reality they never do.
http://adc.bmj.com/content/86/4/236
I really wonder if a lot of it is that in the past people never really made a big deal about allergic reactions. And also that these kids have been told by their parents they could die and thus psychosomatic reactions way beyond any naturally occurring response.
Good link. I'll save that.
I had bad hayfever as a kid. If you think that stopped me from playing in the hayfields with other kids, your nuts. I'd come in covered with hives and eyes so swollen I couldn't see. I'd lay on the couch, mom put a wet washcloth over my eyes and in 30-45 minutes I was fine.
No one ever considered not letting me play.
No, I think this allergy "epidemic" is caused by the same thing that's causing half the other problems this country is facing.
PEOPLE HAVE BECOME HUGE FUCKING PUSSIES!
I'll second the people having become pussies. I have allergies, was miserable as a child. But nothing stopped me from getting out and doing - and my parents did not coddle me. Instead they let me learn from mistakes and manage it.
Is anybody being left to learn from their mistakes so they can alter their behavior/or not? Forget allergies, look at everything in our fucking collective.
I'm partial to the theory that it is excessive cleanliness and sterility leading to overactive immune systems and allergies. Kids need to eat more dirt.
I have heard some objections to this theory that seem reasonable, so maybe I just like it because I am a slob, but it is intuitively appealing anyway.
I'm with you, Zeb. People can't seem to go five minutes without needing to bathe themselves in antibacterial gel anymore.
I'm partial that we raised enough generations of morons that a lot of them managed to have offspring.
Imus and his wife were just the tip of the iceberg. The bottom of the iceberg watches Food Inc. like it is a documentary while begging the government to be more powerful.
Eh, a friend of mine has a lot of allergies, none of them are life threatening, but they do cause visible disfiguration (awful hives swelling of the lips and around the eyes). I've watched her lips get swollen after eating gummybears. It'd be very hard to fake that.
Oh sure, which is why I said "a lot of", not all. My sister is allergic to bees. I've seen what one sting can do. It's life-threatening.
I had a cousin who was allergic to nearly everything. But none of it was deadly. If you have asthma, allergies can have a nasty interaction with it and be life threatening. But that is as much the asthma killing you as the allergy.
Asthma is an autoimmune thing, so it's basically like being allergic to yourself.
I am fatally allergic to peanuts and shellfish. I have gone into anaphylaxis 3 times in my life (once to shrimp and twice to peanuts), all when I was less than 10 years old. I have also had the unpleasant experience of having my eyes swell shut on a commercial flight when everyone opened their bags of peanuts.
That being said, I have never requested special privileges or forced anyone to accommodate my dietary needs. I abhor the attention that I receive when I explain my condition to other people and the reactions that I receive.
It is not medically possible to be more allergic to a food than I am to peanuts and shellfish. I can clearly state from experience that most parents are extremely over-protective of children with allergies. I sat in the lunchroom with the rest of the children and their peanut butter sandwiches without any trouble. All in all, I had a normal childhood, besides not eating much at birthday parties and hating Halloween.
I have a theory that sometimes minor allergies get worse the more someone tries to avoid what they're allergic to. Say you break into hives from eating shellfish, so you fanatically avoid shellfish for several years, then one day you accidentally eat a shrimp or get exposed to it through cross contanimination at a sushi restaurant or something you may go into anaphyleptic (sp?) shock and die.
I think part of the problem now is that helicopter parents freak out at the slightest little thing that could adversely affect their precious snowflake in any way whatsoever. That and it gives them some "LOOK AT ME!!!!" cred with the other parents.
I don't think most of them are faking it. It is kinda hard to fake an allergic reaction that requires hospitalization.
But I do think you have a point about how it is usually the upper-middle class overprotective parents who have sick kids. One hypothesis is that they are too clean. Just like it is better to get certain diseases out of the way (measles, chickenpox, the mumps, etc) it may be better to do the same thing with certain pollutants.
With their ultra-clean HOA neighborhoods, plastic on the furniture, no smoking, no pets, and organic food their kids are not exposed to the same stuff the working-class kids and kids in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s were exposed to so their immune system start picking fights with peanuts because it doesn't have anything else to do.
Heh heh. "Nuts" You're gay. Get it?
but those kids are going to have to learn to live in a world full of things they can't eat some time
Oh no they're not!
I have a request, lady: pay attention to your fuckin' kid. If you can't trust your kid not to eat food off the ground, you can't trust your kid to babysit herself at a public (key word, "public") while you read Fifty Shades on your Nook.
Not if I'm that next guy, you fascist shitbird.
Well, he's not wrong, NutraSweet. In general, "the next guy" doesn't really believe in freedom except for themselves.
You can't make me feel worse about the state of liberty than I already do, jerk. But thanks for trying.
Smoking comments always do the trick, don't they? Yeah, time to light one up.
If my wife didn't have the nose of bloodhound and a mild allergy to smoke thus ensuring if I smoked I would never get laid again unless I divorced her, I would totally take up smoking out of spite. It never did anything for me, but it must be enjoyable at some point. And it keeps you thin. And there is only a one in three chance it will give you lung cancer. I might take that risk just to piss these people off.
It takes a long for cancer to set in. My plan is to start smoking when I turn 60 in a few years. I'll be dead long before the consequences of smoking can kick in.
I'm just hoping that MJ is legal by time I put my plan into action so that I don't waste my remaning smoking years on tobacco.
I, for one, welcome the life-shortening effects of smoking. I figure the money I spend on smoking now saves money on Depends later on.
I really need to quit smoking, but shit like this really makes me not want to (even more than I already do because i like smoking). I feel like I'd be letting these assholes win.
I really need to quit smoking
Nobody likes a quitter.
Isn't it a little early for getting stoned, nicole? Don't you have some sort of job, like a secretary or stewardess or nanny or something?
I said "light one up," not "blaze," you idiot.
Right, of course, sorry. I'm kind of drunk.
Well, there are a few good ones.
So smoking is worse than getting morbidly fat? Worse than getting thousands of tattoos and piercings? Worse than having unprotected sex with gay prostitutes? Worse than shooting smack? Really?
Those things are lifestyle choices that you are supposed to respect.
Smokers on the other hand are subhuman.
They were born that way, John.
Smoking is a choice, forced on your by evil Tobacco corpurazhuns
Well, if you know what you are getting and keep it clean, shooting smack is less likely to significantly shorten your life.
Yeah. Nobody ever quits smoking by their own choice.
My father smoked a pack or two a day of filterless luckies for over 50 years. One day he got tired of paying the outrageous taxes and just quit. Never smoked again. Do no tell me people can't quit smoking. People smoke because they like it. And good for them. But fuck this shit that they can't help themselves.
Umm, you know that not every human being is hardwired the same way your father is, no? I smoked through high school and got tired of it in college and put it down without a problem, but I also know a guy who was able to kick meth, but could not kick tobacco.
He couldn't kick tobacco because he doesn't really want to.
He couldn't kick tobacco because he doesn't really want to.
A bit overly simplistic, John. He doesn't quit smoking because the reward feedback of having a cigarette is more powerful than the reward feedback of overcoming the pain of quitting.
I'm glad that for your father (and for myself) the reward for lighting up was less than the reward for not smoking (I'm also a cheap bastard, which has significantly inhibited my interest in addictive substances), but you're being overly general by making glib statements about how easy it is.
I didn't say it was easy. I just said it was possible if you want to do it badly enough. And if you don't want to quit badly enough to quit, then you really don't want to quit. You just like to think you do.
You have to want to quit. I finally did four years ago. My wife still smokes. Fact is that she likes smoking. Heck, I enjoy it as well. What I don't enjoy is my lungs making hissing and popping sounds, or bending over double in the shower every morning coughing until I puke.
LSMFT!
I agree with you about addiction John, but honestly if tobacco didn't have the whole physical addiction thing going for it I bet it would be one of the least common drugs. Very little bang for a lot of buck(healthwise and to a lesser extent dollar wise.)
I havent smoked too much, maybe a cigar here or there, but it doesn't do anything for me and I know alot of smokers who at least say that it doesn't do anything for them, its just a habit. As opposed to say alcohol which doesn't rely on addiction because it's actually very enjoyable for most people.
Yeah. I honestly have never understood the appeal of tobacco. It just never did anything for me other than taste like shit and make me feel a little nauseous. It must seriously be physically addictive because the high just isn't that great.
You have to get over the nausea and the dizziness to really enjoy tobacco, I think. The effects are very subtle, but having mostly quit for some time and then started full time smoking again, I really noticed the effects more. It definitely has a mental stimulant effect and a calming anti-anxiety effect. And there is just something about cigarettes that can't be completely replaced by any other form of tobacco or other nicotine delivery system.
Amusing and slightly realted, I had a professor in college who had never smokes, but was hooked on nicotine gum because she liked it as a drug.
there is just something about cigarettes that can't be completely replaced by any other form of tobacco or other nicotine delivery system.
What about e-cigarettes? I've heard there's way less carcinogenic shit in them, and they have the same physical feel* as smoking a cigarette, minus the coughing and hacking and puking.
*Freud! Oral fixation FTW!
I've tried e-cigarettes. It's a decent substitute, but still not the same. I don't know what it is. Probably the same thing that makes you cough and puke.
What I suspect is that an ecig alters how one smokes.
When you smoke, you decide to have a cigarette, light up, and smoke until it's gone.
With an ecig, you decide to have a cigarette, turn it on, take a drag and turn it off.....there's no need to smoke the whole thing. That drag will hold you for a bit, so 'smoking' is gone as a thing to do.
It doesn't feel the same because it isn't.
"The effects are very subtle,"
yea this is the kind of stuff I hear, it just seems like if you're going to have a habit that isn't good for you why not one in which the effects are not subtle? Maybe i'm underestimating the effects.
it doesn't do anything for me and I know alot of smokers who at least say that it doesn't do anything for them, its just a habit. As opposed to say alcohol which doesn't rely on addiction because it's actually very enjoyable for most people.
Yeah, this is going to be a personal taste thing. I think cigarettes are so much more delicious than booze, and I like the effects more too.
"Yeah, this is going to be a personal taste thing. I think cigarettes are so much more delicious than booze, and I like the effects more too."
that's interesting, how does it make you feel, could you like compare/contrast it to the effects of caffeine?
At the suggestion of a friend I bought an eGo-T ecig three weeks ago and haven't smoked a cigarette since. Funny thing is, for the past week I haven't used the ecig much either. Some people quit cold turkey, some people take a little while. Anyway, it is possible once you've made up your mind you want to.
At eighteen are kids adults or not? One age for smoking, another for drinking. One age for voting, another for joining the military. Pick an age and stick to it.
Yeah, I tend to be "non-addictive." I drink a couple of espressos a day and everyone keeps hassling me about how it wrecks the nervous system for an already hyper guy like me. It's just projections on their part because I know my body. Espresso simply doesn't affect me like it's "supposed to" and I find very easy to go without it for a few days.
Chocolate too. I eat dark chocolate 90% pure and up.
I do get cravings of that though where I have to go out of my way to buy a bar.
It's comments like these that almost make me want to take up smoking just to make the statist little shit-weasels blow their tops, Scanners style.
If they admit that 18 year old people can buy it just as easily by going across the GW bridge, then what is the point of banning the sale at all?
Don't be silly, John, if you cross the Hudson, coming back is going to cost you $13 for the toll.
No, to circumvent this you need to take the 1st Ave Bridge into the Bronx, take the Bruckner Expressway to 95, go to Connecticut, get your smokes, and then come back the same way but take the Willis Ave. Bridge into Harlem. You can even skip the toll on 95 if you know what you're doing.
Fair enough. No one crosses the GW bridge unless they have to. But these idiots admit this wont' stop a single person from getting cigarettes. So what is the point other than making them feel good?
What other point do they need?
Or they could just buy them from the guys selling them on the street for less than you'd pay in a store.
I'm always stuck behind a smoker huffing and puffing that smoke into my lungs.
Maybe you should stop shotgunning with strangers shinada.
Well, and the "second hand smoke outdoors" stupidity. You are smelling smoke, what you are getting in your lungs is basically nothing and not much worse that what a cab is belching out.
But, but, but there's a consensus!
Consensus!
I SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO SMELL SOMETHING OBJECTIONABLE TO ME!
Not a fan of Pantsfan's Dutch ovens?
Yeah, if you are so damned worried about what you are breathing, you should probably not live in NYC. I'm not sure how true it is, but I remember reading something that said that living in a big city does about as much damage to your lungs as smoking a pack a day living in a place with relatively clean air.
A friend of mine's husband is Belgian and has only lived in Los Angeles for a few years. He's a moderate smoker. His doctor was raving about how healthy his lungs were compared to people who've lived here a long time and was horrified when the guy told the doctor how much he smoked.
That's awesome.
I had a similar experience in LA. I grew up in a household with two heavy smokers. My were watering more in LA than I ever before in my life. The air was fucking brown for love of god.
He believes in freedom in the sense that he believes that it is a state that a person can be in, not in the sense that he approves of or promotes it.
I should have the right to beat the shit out of the guy making me inhale his smoke.
Let's be honest...many lawmakers don't know what to do about any of the real problems we have, so they event problems they can solve.
I love the way a lot of older people just love to stick it to the young people. They got theirs, now fuck you whippersnappers. Also, transfer more money to us.
It sucks. But the young people never seem to stand up for themselves.
+1. Waiting for the World to Change. WTF. Make the world change. Obama voters.
The french smoke but hate GMOs? They are insane.
So we can trust 18 year olds to know for which Top Men to vote but they can't be trusted to decide to smoke?
Either 18 year olds should be able to drink and smoke and vote and enter into contracts, or they shouldn't be allowed any of them.
Which also goes well with my idea that the age of majority in a state is the youngest age at which the the state has charged someone as an adult.
That is a great idea. "Yeah, they are going to try that little murderer as an adult. What do you mean that means my little snowflake will now be able to buy the firewater?"
Yes, good idea. Simple is better, part of what is wrong with our laws is their complexity.
.
THIS!
So brilliant in it's simplicity and fairness.
Not to mention the fact that 18 year olds can be conscripted by the government to fight in its wars. But God forbid they smoke or buy booze!
Hey, dude, the war pigs need their cannon fodder in tip top shape!
That was the argument in the 70s before they lower the age of majority to 18.
Why stop at 21? You can mooch off your parents healthcare until, what, 26 now?
No smoking till 26.
And figure no smoking after Medicare age, too. No smoking for the poor, either, if they're on Medicaid.
Of course, we're going to need to replace that cigarette tax revenue, so jack up the rate on the remaining smokers. Might have to make smoking mandatory for them, actually, to replace the revenue.
"And figure no smoking after Medicare age, too. No smoking for the poor, either, if they're on Medicaid."
I think having to give up some liberty for access to a government handout program isn't a bad idea. Although i'd prefer something like a guaranteed minimum income and getting rid of programs that choose how to spend the money for you like medicare or food stamps.
Remember that Team Obama 'Life of Julia' ad? We're all wards of the state for the entirety of our lives.
Good luck with that.
Well dang. I already signed onto Sugarfree's 'tried as adult' threshold - but I like yours as well.
Why stop at 26, it's not good for you, therefore the State should control your actions for your own good. And why stop at banning cigarettes, running around a pool -need a law, bathing in a non slip protected shower - need a law, unprotected sex - need a law, walking down stairs without holding the hand rail - need a law. It's time WE make the world safe. WE must.
Percentage of those kids interviewed who voted for Obama and/or Bloomberg: [ ]?
As a 19 year old smoker in NYC all I have to say is "Fuck off, slaver."
I love how tough new jorkers have to have their decisions made for them.
Raise the age to join the military to 21, a decision that can get you killed faster than smoking.
New Yorkers passed the 'tough' mantle on years ago.
Smoke time!
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Change it because... Alcohol age of 21 has worked out so well?
Spend the money on school programs to keep these kids busy instead of making up new laws.
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