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Hawaii is considering a bill that bans cigarette sales to anyone under 100
(CNN) "The legislature finds that the cigarette is considered the deadliest artifact in human history."
So begins the text of a new bill introduced in Hawaii's State House, calling for a phased ban on cigarette sales in the state by 2024.
Hawaii has some of the most restrictive cigarette laws in the nation. In 2016, it became the first state to raise the age to buy cigarettes to 21. Now, its new bill calls for raising the cigarette-buying age to 30 by next year, up to 40, 50 and 60 in each subsequent year, and up to 100 by 2024.That would effectively clear Hawaii's store shelves of cigarettes, although tourists could still bring them in.
And curiously, Hawaii would offer its centenarians the chance to buy cigarettes near the end of their life -- if they could find them.
Can't we instead simply restrict kids under 100 to designated smoking areas?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by boltronics on Tuesday February 05 2019, @02:24AM (14 children)
I've never been to the USA, but Hawaii seems to be one of the most progressive states the country has. Just recently they were in the news for taking charge on getting loot boxes in video games labelled as gambling. Good on them!
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @03:49PM
That's because they were annexed by force. It's the willing state members that are all the crazy gun nuts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by slinches on Tuesday February 05 2019, @05:37PM (10 children)
FYI, in the US "progressive" isn't necessarily a compliment. It's a political perspective that promotes the supremacy of collective rights over those of the individual. That is antithetical to the premise of individual liberty that the US was founded on. Many in the US, including me, still firmly believe that it is individual choice that allows a person to prosper on their own terms and that should never be restricted as long as they are not impeding others from doing the same. From that philosophy, this ban is abhorrent as only the minimum necessary restrictions should be in place. The existing restrictions on smoking in public are sufficient to ensure that those who do not want to be exposed to second hand smoke are not excluded from other areas of public life. The ban proposed in Hawaii eliminates the choice entirely. Even though I am not a smoker myself, I will defend the rights of those who do because I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to choose how they live. If a similar bill is proposed in my state, I will do everything I can to ensure it does not pass.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 05 2019, @05:47PM (8 children)
At least in Hawaii, the assholes littering everywhere with their god-given entitlement to throw their cigarette butts (often with half the tobacco left) don't start major wildfires.
Instead, those butts just end up in the ocean, where the filters take their 5-10 years to degrade (according to Phillip Morris) polluting the reef and the fish.
Freedom ... At least pot people tend not to waste, and pollute a lot less.
(Score: 2) by slinches on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:11PM (3 children)
What's your point? It is already illegal to litter and start wildfires. If you have a problem with the lack of enforcement of those laws, so do I.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:19PM (2 children)
Hawaii is enforcing the littering law by making the filters illegal. A bit like plastic bags, straws, and bottles, but with a lot of lost tax revenue.
And you know that if politicians give up on established tax revenue, it must be that they have a significant problem they have to address.
(Score: 3, Informative) by slinches on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:34PM
Except they aren't making filters illegal, they are making cigarettes illegal which may or may not include a filter. It's a ban on the most popular form of tobacco product because of the health concern to the user and it is stated that way in the text of the bill.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:20PM
so you admit they are dishonest cowards/thieves. good to know.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:39PM (3 children)
Littering actually harms the public.
Smoking on your own back porch, doesn't.
I say we regulate the first, not the second.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dry on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:56PM
There's been talk of having a deposit on cigarette filters here. At least it would give the homeless a source of income.
The worst litter I see walking around my neighbourhood is Tim Horton's cups and McDonald's crap, as well as beer cans. 6 miles to the closest Timmies and stupid jerks have to throw them out their window.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 05 2019, @07:10PM (1 child)
Any smoking harms my insurance rates. We should make Big Tobacco pay medical expenses for all the lung cancers that are not caused by coal, household products, Big Agriculture and its suppliers, ikea, container ships, asbestos, and smog... Easy solution, really !
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:23PM
if it weren't for slaves like you people could have cheap and high quality private health care. insurance? what a bitch.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday February 05 2019, @08:19PM
Bull-fucking-shit.
You're talking about a behavior that spreads known carcinogens (CANCER). Fuck the smokers up the ass with a 100ft telephone pole, sideways. Last week I saw something I'd NEVER seen before, and that was some asshole that was smoking in public in his truck, take his cigg and throw it in the back. The rest of my life, those fucking assholes throw the butts on the ground. It's a goddamned menace and a disaster for the environment. The existing restrictions are wholly ineffective. They're the most entitled fucking children on the planet. They will smoke outside within 20ft of a building and not give a fuck, nor do they give a fuck where they throw the used butts. I can't escape those bitches either, the smoke is everywhere in my city, and the only thing that makes me feel better, is that it is highly likely they will die horribly. Good.
I like your libertarian attitudes and freedom of choice, as long as that freedom of choice includes ZERO PERCENT of the public spaces. You can't smoke within 1000ft of a building, 5000ft of a school or playground, and zero smoking in, or around, public buildings. That's not enough because they RUIN the hiking trails and outdoor spaces we try to enjoy. Nothing ruins my day faster than smelling cigg smoke. If Chuckles McFuckFace has to have a cigg, then he go to the fucking parking garage and get in his/her car to smoke. Or smoke at home. You shouldn't even be allowed to smoke outside in a parking lot, or especially directly outside the arrivals area at an airport. Those selfish sons of bitches expose the rest of us to possible cancer because they can't wait till they get home, or to a smoking room.
None of it makes any goddamn fucking sense, because you have vaping now. When I smoked MJ in public, I went out of my way to find the most remote areas so that nobody would be put out. Do smokers do the same? Fuck no. Now, both MJ and tobacco smokers can use vapes that are far, far, far less intrusive in outside public spaces.
No. Hawaii is doing a wonderful thing and fuck every smoker everywhere up the ass with a cattle prod. Repeatedly. American concepts of freedom do NOT mean to me that I get to spew carcinogens in public, or around people. There is ZERO redeeming features of those nasty fucking pieces of of literal shit those assholes put in their mouths.
Fuck smokers.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:27PM
More like, they only want good press, since most of their income comes via tourism. Stop selling cigarettes, when the vast majority of the USA doesn't smoke anymore, sure thing! Label loot boxes as gambling? Yes, please! Doing that will only give them positive press, if you've been paying attention. It's a real easy think of the children, consumer friendly practice.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @08:20PM
Progressive? This is just authoritarian. As an actual progressive, I have no interest in interfering with people's personal affairs to such an extent.