http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...th_smoking_dc_3

Calif. Seeks to Raise Legal Smoking Age to 21
Mon Jun 3, 3:57 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Seeking to drastically cut youth smoking rates, California legislators introduced a bill on Monday to raise the state's legal age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21 -- the highest in the country.


"This will make California the strictest state in the nation when it comes to letting young people smoke," said Assemblyman Paul Koretz, the Los Angeles Democrat sponsoring the bill.

"These merchants of death are desperate to expand their customer base, but they ought not be able to prey on teenagers to get them addicted."

Koretz said his bill, coauthored by state Sen. Joe Dunn and promoted by the California Medical Association, would help prevent tobacco companies from reaching people in their late teens, when they are most likely to become addicted to cigarettes.

National studies have shown that most people begin smoking before 18, while those who reach 21 without becoming smokers are very unlikely to ever take up the habit.

Federal statistics say that some 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related illness.

"This bill will prevent adolescents getting hooked. It will save lives and significantly reduce health care costs," Koretz told a news conference.

Currently, most U.S. states allow tobacco purchases at 18, while Utah, Alaska and Alabama set the age limit at 19.

The California bill has been greeted with a shrug by cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, where a spokesman said the company would defer to lawmakers on deciding what the legal smoking age should be.

But anti-tobacco activists said they expected a tough fight in Sacramento, with tobacco companies, retailers and other business groups likely to oppose the measure.

"This ... is a shot directly at the heart of the tobacco industry," said Dunn, the Southern California Democrat who will spearhead efforts to pass the bill in the state Senate.

"The tobacco industry knows full well what it is doing and it knows full well the dangers of this (legislation)," Dunn said. "This could mean the ultimate demise of their industry, and they know it."

Dr. Jack Lewin, head of the California Medical Association, said, "Once again California is leading the way in breaking the chain of addiction and unnecessary preventable death due to tobacco."


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Could someone explain to me how the state is able to establish this "third" type of person.

There are MINORS
And there are ADULTS

What is this 18-21 "sort of adult"?

This is EXACTLY what happens when you don't speak up about things because it's "for their own good". Limiting Alcohol to 21 and over was UN-CONSTITUTIONAL but the country went with it and now that precident is being used to limit ADULTS freedoms even further!

Look, when you turn 18 your a friggen adult! This "Sort of adult" crap is just insulting!

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong!

Vor


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May the Dune Gods Smile Upon You
ShiftingDunes.com

"Your sorta only kinda an adult when we wanna use you in battle, and maybe if our politicians need those valuable votes to push their meaningless propiganda around, but please dont think your adult enough to drink or smoke or kill yourself, cause other than that we need you..."

Seems to me these legislators are more intent on putting the hurt on the tobacco companies and keeping the 18-20 year olds away from tobacco is just a by-product. That's just a tool to beat down big tobacco. I totally understand why Cali is known as the Nazi state.

I think if you REALLY want to get people NOT to smoke, you should require them to smoke for a period of no less than two years. I think if you make something mandatory people will try to get out of it.

Ehhh 18,21, kids will mimic their elders when they feel its time to.

BTW No smokes for me for the last EIGHT weeks

Sure raising the legal age to 21 will keep teenagers off cigarettes just like it keeps teenagers from using alcohol .

I just wonder why people allow this sorta thing.
What the government is doing is TAKING YOUR RIGHTS AWAY!

You are an adult, and as an adult you are entitled to all of the rights and priviledges of a citizen of the United States.
To allow this sort of infringement on your rights will only open the door up for more and more infringements!

My advice?
You 18-21 year olds can vote!
DO IT!

Vor

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May the Dune Gods Smile Upon You
ShiftingDunes.com

Well, Here's another example of some IDIOT trying to save us from ourselves because we're too stupid to make a decision for ourselves.


Seatbelt law.
Helmet law.

This line does it for me:

"National studies have shown that most people begin smoking before 18, while those who reach 21 without becoming smokers are very unlikely to ever take up the habit."

Wait a minute, most people begin smoking BEFORE 18? How is that possible? It's AGAINST THE LAW IN EVERY STATE for people under 18 to smoke. I don't get it. Those kids aren't allowed to smoke! IT's AGAINST THE LAW. "The law"....everytime i read those words, i picture it in quotation marks in my head.

How is raising the legal age to 21 going to change anything?

Oh, these wacky liberals with their feel-good, nanny-state laws. It reminds me of how they think that passing hate-crime laws will prevent rednecks from killing homosexuals.

"Earl, the way I see it, if we go through with killing us some ***s, we'll be guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, first degree murder with special circumstances, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem, disturbing the peace, using a firearm in commission of a crime, carrying a concealed weapon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted, any one of several of those will earn us a ride in the electric chair. But I don't give a darn about that, let's go smear some queers!"

"Hey Ed, you know Congress just made gay-bashing a hate crime?"

"Tarnation, Earl! You shoulda tol' me before! Now we'll have to stay home and beat our wives instead."

hahaha. Like that would really happen. How stupid.

I keep praying for a civil war.

What gets me about the whole "hate crime" thing is what if my white wife is killed by a white guy? Don't I get the same right to have my wife's killer punished to the FULLEST extant of the law?
No, it wasn't a "hate" crime so your wife's killer just gets "life" which means 5 years. It is MUCH more heanous that someone killed someone because they were gay/black/mexican/liberals/ect.
BULL(cough)T... MURDER ITSELF IS A HATE CRIME! I am tired of "special priveledges" for those people who are members of some "accepted" special group!...

Civil War is right!

Vor

quote:

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It reminds me of how they think that passing hate-crime laws will prevent rednecks from killing homosexuals.

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Do a search about this subject and the results may be a little surprizing about who is doing what to whom and why.