Must Be 21 to Buy ... Cigarettes?

cornflake

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In New York City that will likely soon be the case, as the city council voted to raise the minimum age. As I mentioned in another thread, I can't stand the tiny little despot mayor, but this particular vendetta of his, I'm behind.

He banned smoking indoors and a lot of places outdoors and this seems like a good step. It's odd to allow people to buy cigarettes but not booze. Story here -

Smokers younger than 21 in the nation's biggest city will soon be barred from buying cigarettes after the New York City Council voted overwhelming Wednesday to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to higher than all but a few other places in the United States.

City lawmakers approved the bill - which raises from 18 to 21 the purchasing age for cigarettes, certain tobacco products and even electronic-vapor smokes - and another that sets a minimum $10.50-a-pack price for tobacco cigarettes and steps up law enforcement on illegal tobacco sales...

With Wednesday's vote, New York is by far the biggest city to bar cigarette sales to 19- and 20-year-olds. Similar legislation is expected to come to a vote in Hawaii this December. The tobacco-buying age is 21 in Needham, Mass., and is poised to rise to 21 in January in nearby Canton, Mass. The state of New Jersey is also considering a similar proposal.

Lawmakers who pushed for the change site city statistics that show youth smoking rates have plateaued at 8.5 percent since 2007.

"We have to do more and that's what we're doing today," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "We have a real chance of leading the country and the world."

The city's current age limit is 18, a federal minimum that's standard in many places. Smoking in city parks and beaches is already prohibited as it is in restaurants.
 
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Don

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Yeah, because age restrictions and other prohibitory regulations are always so successful. They'll just smoke more pot; it'll be easier to get than cigarettes.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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What I'd really like to do is raise the minimum age for military enlistment to 21.

Isn't that why the US reduced the voting age to 18? Because the enlistment age was 18 and people (men, really) could die for their country but were not allowed to vote.

Seems silly. Are people meant to know bettervif they are3 years older?

I gather there is a difference, yes. And if one is going to draw a line, it has to be somewhere.
 

jimmymc

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Just smoke marijuana, weed doesn't have the psychoneurosis attached to it as does tobacco. Probably cheaper too.

Once, I was enjoying a mid-afternoon smoke in the far corner of a chain store parking lot. A woman drove out of her way and proceeded to chastise me for smoking a cigarette.

I told her not to worry, it's marijuana.

She got a blank look on her face and drove off.
 

Cyia

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If the law says no buying at 18, rather than no smoking at 18, it's only a ferry or cab ride to Jersey.
 

Fran

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The age for buying cigarettes here was recently raised from 16 to 18. I don't know how much difference it's made but the ban on smoking in public places has improved public health.

Meanwhile the EU has just banned menthols. My mum's in a right strop about it. I'm glad they didn't regulate e-cigs. I can't help thinking the tobacco companies are getting twitchy about e-cigs cutting into their profits, because at the moment there's no reason to regulate them. Even if they aren't completely safe, which is yet to be proved, they can't possibly be as bad for you as real cigs.
 

Lyv

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Where are the laws raising the price and taxes on cigars? Oh, that's right, rich people smoke cigars, so lets tax what the poor people smoke.

Oh, there have been tax increases on cigars. I Googled only "cigar tax" and got a long list of hits (some include cigarettes, but there are a lot of stories about cigar taxes).

I have a distant relative who makes his part of his living from cigars (not sure exactly what he does, but a magazine was involved at some point) and rants at length about cigar taxes. And sometimes when a law is described as affecting cigarettes, as in this story, cigars are included but the headlines simply reference cigarettes, probably because more people smoke them.
 
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RichardGarfinkle

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Where are the laws raising the price and taxes on cigars? Oh, that's right, rich people smoke cigars, so lets tax what the poor people smoke.

It would appear that the tax on Cigars in New York State isn't cheap.
http://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/cig/cigidx.htm

New York State imposes an excise tax on cigarettes at the rate of $4.35 per package of twenty cigarettes. New York City imposes a local excise tax at the rate of $1.50 per package of twenty cigarettes, bringing the combined tax rate in New York City to $5.85.
A tax stamp affixed to the bottom of each pack of cigarettes sold in the State provides evidence that the taxes were paid. A state tax stamp is evidence that the state excise tax was paid. A joint state/city tax stamp is evidence that both the state and city taxes were paid.
New York State also imposes an excise tax on tobacco products at the following rates:

  • 75% of the wholesale price on cigars and tobacco products (other than little cigars and snuff)
  • $4.35 per twenty little cigars
  • $2 per container of snuff one ounce or less, and $2 per ounce and a proportionate rate on any fractional amount thereof for containers with more than one ounce

Although apparently the NY Senate wishes to cut that tax.
http://taxes.lohudblogs.com/2013/03/14/senate-budget-proposal-would-cut-cigar-tax-in-state/

I can't find a separate NYC tax on cigars.
 

CrastersBabies

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"Yeah, this will stop those darn 18-year-olds from getting cigarettes."

(said no one ever)
 

Lyv

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This is tangential, but in 1979, I graduated from a high school that had a designated smoking area, for students. I'm pretty sure it was even on the official school map, but even if not, it was acknowledged by staff and tolerated.
 

William Haskins

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this just in: still no minimum age increase for having your nuts blown off by an IED on the other side of the world.
 

DancingMaenid

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I'm not crazy about age restrictions like this for legal adults. If someone is old enough to make their own medical decisions, sign contracts without an adult representing them, own property, and get married without permission, then they're old enough to be allowed to make potentially life-threatening decisions such as whether to smoke.
 

roundtable

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My mom was a smoker. Quit cold turkey when her dad was diagnosed with lung cancer after six months earlier being told that his chest x-ray came out normal. I understand smoking is an addiction and don't want to take away people's rights to do what they want in their homes or yards.

However, when my daughter was in elementary school, she started having asthma-like attacks, but only when we were out shopping. Turned out it was a sensitivity to cigarette smoke. So the bans in and outside of restaurants and stores, I do support. Banning it by age though, it's never going to work. It's too easy to go across the border or simply to ask someone older to buy them for you.

Which will lead to stores doing like one does here. If I'm out grocery shopping and have my teens with me, there is one grocery store that will not sell me beer or wine. They claim they have no way to prove I'm not going to go out to the car and give my kids the alcohol. That store lost my business, but I'm hearing rumors that others are considering implementing the same policy to legally cover their behinds.
 

GeorgeK

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Isn't that why the US reduced the voting age to 18? Because the enlistment age was 18 and people (men, really) could die for their country but were not allowed to vote.


.
No, it was the result of a Pentagon study where they realized it was easier to convince an 18 year old to do stupid dangerous things than a 21 year old.
 

Wilde_at_heart

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"Yeah, this will stop those darn 18-year-olds from getting cigarettes."

(said no one ever)

Exactly.

At that age they probably already know the smugglers who get them cheaper anyway.

ETA: I'm also not sure driving them to smoking pot would be any better. A lot of the arguments about it being less 'harmful' than cigarettes strike me as more wishful thinking than anything else and with the amount of money behind the scenes shifting around in anticipation of it becoming legal in more and more places, I don't put much stock in studies 'proving' such.
 
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Don

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this just in: still no minimum age increase for having your nuts blown off by an IED on the other side of the world.
Obviously, dying for your own sins is a form of foolishness that people should be denied the ability to indulge, but sacrificing yourself for the sins of those who rule is praiseworthy. Did you skip Political Altruism 101?
No, it was the result of a Pentagon study where they realized it was easier to convince an 18 year old to do stupid dangerous things than a 21 year old.
Or it could just be what George said.
 

Shadow Dragon

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ETA: I'm also not sure driving them to smoking pot would be any better. A lot of the arguments about it being less 'harmful' than cigarettes strike me as more wishful thinking than anything else and with the amount of money behind the scenes shifting around in anticipation of it becoming legal in more and more places, I don't put much stock in studies 'proving' such.
This may be off topic but:

As far as being safer, here's a big one, no one has gotten cancer for weed. There are negative effects, no doubt, but death isn't one of them. Unlike with cigarettes. That alone makes it safer.