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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
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California's Legal Smoking Age Set to Rise to 21
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The sooner our happiness together begins, the longer it will last.
-- Miramanee, "The Paradise Syndrome", stardate 4842.6
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Subsentient on Friday May 06 2016, @04:19AM
I think both tobacco and alcohol should be legal at 18, either that or raise the age of adulthood to 21. This current standard of 'oh yay you're an adult, except you're not' is two-faced and a possible slippery slope to telling seniors they can't legally have salty foods or have sex for health reasons. Human life is short. If you live to 60, 18 years of your life, maturation, is already a depressingly long time to be alive without full human rights, almost a third of your life, to be exact. And at 21, it's over a third. You can't do much about that really, people under 18 (and some over it) often lack judgement needed to make wise decisions, but let's not extend that any further, yes?
Some will reply "well should you be allowed to jump off a cliff because it's your choice?!" and I'd reply, yes. That's what true freedom is about, self determination.
Personal context:
I might be biased because I am a smoker. Frankly, I *hope* it kills me at 60. I don't want to live to be old enough to end up wearing depends and not remembering my own name, that and the existential horror I deal with every day. But to each their own. Smoking is a faustian bargain where you get a little stress relief every day with no mind-altering effects except addiction, but it'll probably kill you young. For a miserable son of a bitch like me, that's a good deal.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday May 06 2016, @04:51AM
No. You're not biased. This is common sense and exercising your rights as an adult. (Which is another point -- politicians and lawyers clearly can't define "adult" since one can be tried as an adult for crimes younger than 18, can be drafted at 18, and now drinking isn't allowed till 21.) I say this as a person who hates to see people kill themselves smoking, as a person who has asthma, and who absolutely hates the smell of smoke.
I'm fully with you that an adult should be able to do what they want as long as it doesn't harm me or get in the way of allowing me to make my choices. In my opinion, if you want to smoke, go for it. If you want to drink or have salty foods or have sex or do drugs, go for it because it doesn't harm me.
Now, with that said, sometimes drinking (when combined with driving) or smoking (at a place where I work) or loud music (that keeps me awake when I need to sleep) can severely affect me. We need to agree on where to draw lines (in a societal way) so we both have our freedoms. In my personal life, I've found I can work or goof off with smokers. Most smokers I know are pretty cool around me and understand my issues. We can usually find a good line where both of us are happy.
And what cheeses me off about this regulation is that everyone needs a vice to let off steam. I may not like smoking as a vice, but I have my own quirks and vices that others don't like. These holier-than-thou attitudes shown by these politicians only lead to worse issues down the road. But then, maybe that is the point. Make everything illegal so that people can be locked up for a superficial reason -- and quite frankly, smoking is a superficial reason. This law is just stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 06 2016, @05:52AM
You say that you hope you die when you're 60, because you don't want to have use depends? Is that because it would be unpleasant to live like that? Keep smoking and you may get a hole cut in your throat and lose your ability to speak. Or you may lose some your teeth --- that also happens to smokers more frequently than nonsmokers. Or you might wind up with COPD and need to drag around a tank of oxygen around with you. I'm 64, and I've seen all these happen. I've also lost friends and family members to this dumb habit.
Don't be a chump. Whatever you may think you get out of cigarettes, it's not worth it. Stop now. You'll thank me when you're 60.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday May 06 2016, @06:12AM
I'd rather be a mute with an oxygen tank than senile and incontinent, locked in an insipid facility with abusive nurses by my ungrateful children, or in my case, likely no children to even miss me and visit me. Still seems like a fair deal to me.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 06 2016, @10:47AM
your problem is you have no idea what pain is. lung cancer is a horrible way to die.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday May 06 2016, @08:50PM
As someone who once spent months screaming for someone to kill me with tears streaming down my face, that's offensive.
I'm not even kidding.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti