SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Late Wednesday, Brown signed the bill raising the age for tobacco use, including vaping, to 21, the Associated Press reports. He also vetoed a bill that would have asked voters to divert tobacco taxes to pay for the health expenses of those with tobacco-related ailments, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Source: NPR
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
California's Legal Smoking Age Set to Rise to 21
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 74 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
TAPPING? You POLITICIANS! Don't you realize that the END of the "Wash
Cycle" is a TREASURED MOMENT for most people?!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday May 06 2016, @12:19AM
There's a big difference between tobacco and marijuana: tobacco is chemically addictive and is known to kill people, whereas marijuana is only somewhat psychologically addictive and has as best as anybody can tell killed nobody. The primary reason tobacco is legal is that tobacco was a drug of choice for white people back in the 1930's, whereas marijuana was the drug of choice for Mexican immigrants and black people who the authorities wanted to have an excuse to lock up even if they hadn't done anything wrong.
Our drug laws are much more the product of racism than they are of science.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday May 06 2016, @12:40AM
Uh huh, stoners make weed a worship item, go to the right sort of places and you see that damned leaf more than you see crucifixes. It is the number one driver of the Libertarian Party; it is their sacrament, their defining issue in exactly the same way dead babies and wealth redistribution define Democrats.. Stoners are convinced smoking a lil magic herb can cure pretty much any disease known to man. Sure, they can quit any time they want.
And as for dangerous, comparing an illegal product to tobacco is arguing in bad faith. Do you really think that when Big Tobacco rolls into production and weed is selling at the exact same wholesale price as tobacco, i.e. when you can walk into the corner Kwiki Mart and buy a pack of either for about the same price, and folks are burning through a couple of packs a day, that we won't see similar health problems? Really? Meanwhile nicotine is a nasty drug but it tends to be a stimulant, people smoke to get a boost much like others prefer caffeine. Weed, how shall I put this nicely, is not a stimulant.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by art guerrilla on Friday May 06 2016, @01:38AM
urine idjit...
of all my dope-smoking friends, only ONE youngster has ANY MJ leaf crap around...
you damn well notice the 1 out of a hundred with MJ leaf posters, knit cap, etc (PARTICULARLY the youngsters); but don't realize the other 20-30 'normal' people out of a hundred you see are smokers, too, they just don't go public about it for perfectly reasonable reasons of a corrupt and controlling society...
(and better taste in clothing)
as a MATTER OF PRINCIPLE, IF you are actually FOR freedom, and the ability of people to make their OWN FUCKING DECISIONS, then there *should be* no laws prohibiting me/anyone from ingesting whatever they see fit to ingest for whatever reasons...
here's the thing: being free means being free to make mistakes; not just that you are free to cure cancer; but you are free to contract cancer...
otherwise, you ain't free...
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday May 06 2016, @04:15AM
You make a most basic error in logic and perception. You presume a free society is an option. It certainly isn't what we have now and it isn't anything that is close enough to the Overton Window to see with the Hubble Telescope. Many policy choices that would make sense in a free country are insanity in ours.
And if one were attempting to move our current welfare socialism to a free country, legalizing drugs is an... ahem, interesting first step. You should first be attempting to create a people worthy of the blessings of liberty again instead of helping them debauch themselves further with a drug known to make the users uncaring and pliable. A strong, self reliant, responsible people probably could handle the occasional indulgence in pot much like they handled alcohol and it would make sense to allow them to handle it, also allowing them to deal with the consequences.
But reread the article we are debating. We are banning tobacco because we have a nanny state who worries about the medical costs it must bear if it permits its subjects to smoke. If you have a plan to smash that, there are a lot of us who would like to hear it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday May 06 2016, @02:32AM
For the record, I'm not a stoner. I know some, and many are perfectly normal kinds of folks who just like to smoke up when they get home from work. Demonstrating that some stoners are idiots does not prove that pot is more harmful than tobacco, especially since none of the studies done on that issue point in that direction.
How does the legality of pot have any bearing on how dangerous it is? I mean, I get that the local dope dealer isn't getting an FDA approval stamp on it, but that doesn't tell you anything about whether cannabis causes significant harm to human bodies. Pot was made illegal for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with science.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday May 06 2016, @04:06AM
How does the legality of pot have any bearing on how dangerous it is?
You don't think the price influences use? When the stuff is as cheap as tobacco and, apparently, even more legal is it not reasonable to suppose people will consume it in much greater quantity than now when it sells for way over a hundred dollars an ounce and carries a threat of imprisonment in most places for mere possession?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday May 06 2016, @03:03PM
Even conceding that point (which is a stretch, because pot is very very easy for people to come by): As far as anybody can tell, nobody (not even the stoners) will be seriously harmed if there are people sitting around smoking dope and eating Cheetos. Certainly less people than will be harmed by having people standing around smoking cigarettes, via lung cancer and heart disease. Why are you so keen on making activities that don't hurt anybody illegal?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.