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Oregon Raises the Smoking Age (fastcompany.com)
From a report: Some 95 percent of lifetime smokers pick up the habit before their 21st birthday, so Oregon lawmakers yesterday passed a law making it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to purchase cigarettes in the hopes of nipping the bad habit in the bud. "By the age of 25, this addiction is cemented in the brain and it becomes very difficult -- almost impossible -- to quit," State Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, told KGW. Oregon is not the first state to do this, and it probably won't be the last. No one under 21 can (lawfully) buy cigarettes in Hawaii, California, Washington, D.C., and Guam to date. It also passed in New Jersey, but noted beachcomber Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the bill -- although it could still become law there. According to the American Cancer Society, at least 250 localities across the country have passed similar local ordinances.
I've been told countless times and we read in every "gun control" forum that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Using that same logic, how can we ever justify "cigarette control" as a way to limit damage or death. The Oregon lawmakers just don't get it. Outlaw certain cigarettes and then only criminals will have them. And the only way to stop a criminal smoker is to make sure we have more and more good citizen smokers on the streets. We're just opening a huge Pandoras Box with these new laws. I advocate for open smoking laws. We should be able to walk around openly smoking with lighters and books of matches slung over our shoulders.
Your a freeloader, you use services other people's taxes pay for.
You really ought to pipe down; other peoples' taxes paid for your education and look what you fucking did with it...