As many people now know, the smoking age in New York City has now been raised from 18 to 21. In my opinion, I support this law. Raising the age will not only discourage many young people but put fear in young peoples eyes too.
Ive personally lost 3 grandparents to smoking and heavily support raising the smoking age to 21 in all states. Smoking will eventually perish if the rate of decline continues to fall which will save many peoples lives. However in New York, if many young people want to purchase cigarettes, then they will purchase cigarettes. So many young people under 21 have fake IDs in order to buy alcohol and tobacco. Even kids in states other than Colorado find ways to obtain even though it is illegal. It is too easy to get what you want now a day without any consequences. With saying that, raising the smoking age will lower the smoking rate because it will discourage many people by being afraid of the law. I hope this law will eventually be upheld in all states and thus many lives will be saved.
I agree with you on some points. The major one is that people under 21 are still going to be able to purchase tobacco products, just not as easy as they once did. Kids do not have too much of a problem obtaining alcohol or even illegal substances like marijuana now, so I do not predict much of a decline in smokers due to the law directly.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like personal history with smoking and smoking related illness is one of the most important factors in determining support or lack thereof for such proposals. It almost makes me wonder if on some level support in such instances is almost symbolic. Or perhaps a better way to say that is that such support would occur even if it is mainly symbolic. You suggest that the proposal probably won't fall that much. Is it the case that you believe it will fall, but just by a little, or that you don't think it will fall a great deal?
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