Christine Quinn wants to raise smoking age from 18 to 21

[Rational Jew]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/23/new-york-city-cigarettes-age-21

New York City moves to outlaw cigarette sales to smokers under 21
City which already has the highest cigarette taxes in the country takes first step towards setting legal smoking age at 21
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Reuters in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 April 2013 10.45 EDT
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New York City is already the most expensive city in the United States to be a smoker. Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian
New York City took the first step on Monday in outlawing sales of cigarettes to anyone under age 21, in an effort to reduce smoking among the age group in which most smokers take up the habit.

The bill, which was introduced by the city council and has the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, would make New York City, which already has the highest cigarette taxes in the nation, the first big city or state to set the smoking age at 21. Currently, individuals must be 18 to buy cigarettes.

Eight in 10 adult smokers in the city started smoking regularly when they were below the age of 21, and most smokers who are under age 18 obtain cigarettes from individuals who are just a few years older than them, city officials said.

While an increase in cigarette taxes contributed to a 15-point drop among youth smokers from 1999 to 2007, the number of high-school-aged smokers has held steady at about 8.5 percent over the last six years.

Cigarette packs sold in New York City currently carry a state tax of $4.35 and a city tax of $1.50 – making it the most expensive city in the nation to be a smoker.

"Too many adult smokers begin this deadly habit before age 21," city council speaker Christine Quinn said. "By delaying our city's children and young adults access to lethal tobacco products, we're decreasing the likelihood they ever start smoking, and thus, creating a healthier city."

The bill marks the latest effort in the city's decade-long fight to discourage smoking, which the city's health commissioner, Thomas Farley, said was the most significant cause of preventable death in the city. In 2003, Bloomberg outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants, and smoking has since been banned in other public places, including parks.

Quinn, who is running to become the city's next mayor, made clear that she would continue Bloomberg's aggressive public health agenda – which has led his detractors to dub him the "nanny mayor".

While most of the city's anti-smoking initiatives have originated with Bloomberg, the mayor did not join Quinn in making the announcement on Monday, instead sending Farley to say that the mayor looks forward to signing the bill into law.

Every US state prohibits retailers from selling tobacco products to minors and in most states the smoking age is set at 18. Four states – Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah – require that a cigarette purchaser be at least 19 years old.

In New York, Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island have already boosted their legal age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products to 19.

Nearly all tobacco use starts in childhood and adolescence, according to the 2012 report by the US surgeon general, which declared smoking a "pediatric epidemic" both in the United States and globally.

According to the report, 99% of all first use of tobacco occurs by age 26. The report also found that if youth and young adults manage to avoid smoking or other tobacco products, very few will begin smoking after that age.

Evidence suggests that once youth start smoking, many find it hard to quit. Of all adult cigarette smokers in the United States who smoke daily, 88% started smoking by age 18, according to the report.

Currently, about one out of four seniors in high school – youth aged 17 or 18 – smoke on a regular basis. Among those who continue smoking, half will die 13 years earlier than non-smoking peers.

It was not immediately clear how the tobacco industry would respond to the proposed legislation, which Quinn said she hoped would become a model for the rest of the country.

"Our companies follow the law whatever it is in any jurisdiction," said Jane Seccombe, spokeswoman for Reynolds American Inc, the parent company of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co, American Snuff Co and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. "We believe no minors, however they're classified in those jurisdictions, should be able to access tobacco products."

She declined to comment on any potential sales impact from changes in the minimum age.

[Zelhar]

Is that a bad thing ? Why shouldn't smoking and drinking have the same legal age ?

[Dr. Dan]

How about raising taxes on junk food and cigarettes?

[TruthSpreader]

I agree about raising taxes that actually harm people like cigarettes and junk food.

[cjd]

Where will the limit be as to what the government sees fit to tax? In my opinion taxation of this sort becomes a slippery slope.

[Rubystars]

Conservatives generally believe in personal responsibility not punitive taxation on things like smoking.

[HiWarp]

You know I have to laugh at all the "make it illegal", "raise taxes on it", "raise the legal age" rhetoric. Like there's no such thing as a black market for things that people want but can't get legally or cheaply. You simply can't legislate peoples' personal behavior no matter how hard you try and you shouldn't be trying. As Rubystars pointed out, personal responsibility, along with the personal consequences for your actions, is the way these things should be handled.

[Havok]

How about raising taxes on junk food and cigarettes?

BloomBerg as well as this Dyke Quinn have no right to tell people how old they have to be to smoke. The tax on cigarettes are already high over 10 dollars a pack. Why tax junk food? If people want to eat something unhealthy who are you to say they should pay more for it

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Smoking should be banned. It can't be compared with drinking. Drinking is okay in moderation but smoking is never okay. Alcohol is a drink. Smoking is disgusting and poison.

[Havok]

Smoking should be banned. It can't be compared with drinking. Drinking is okay in moderation but smoking is never okay. Alcohol is a drink. Smoking is disgusting and poison.

They won't ban smoking. This is not a communist country where they dictate what people can and cannot do.

[nessuno]

Just her name, Christian Quinn, makes me cringe.  Just like Bloomberg.
What's next?  That is what I think, when I am forced to think of them.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Just her name, Christian Quinn, makes me cringe.  Just like Bloomberg.
What's next?  That is what I think, when I am forced to think of them.

I looked her up and it said she is the first woman and "openly homosexual" to hold her office.

[HiWarp]

Because there is no need for the smoking age to be as high as 21. In America, a person who turns 18 is supposedly considered as "responsible adult". If  such "responsible adult" can vote or enlist in the army among other things adults can do, why can't the same adult person purchase tobacco based on will? How can we call ourselves "free nation" when we have the highest age-based restrictions in the world (The only countries which have the higher age-based restrictions are the muslm countries or India)? We cannot compare it to drinking alcohol because alcohol influences you when you drive. If that's the case, then keep the drinking age 21 as the exception but do not raise other age limits.

Irrelevant. Drinking impairs your ability to drive regardless of how old you are. That's why driving when under the influence of alcohol is illegal at any age.

[Rational Jew]

Is that a bad thing ? Why shouldn't smoking and drinking have the same legal age ?

Because there is no need for the smoking age to be as high as 21. In America, a person who turns 18 is supposedly considered as "responsible adult". If  such "responsible adult" can vote or enlist in the army among other things adults can do, why can't the same adult person purchase tobacco based on will? How can we call ourselves "free nation" when we have the highest age-based restrictions in the world (The only countries which have the higher age-based restrictions are the muslim countries or India)? We cannot compare it to drinking alcohol because alcohol influences you when you drive. If that's the case, then keep the drinking age 21 as the exception but do not raise other age limits.

I'm not a smoker myself, and I would not want any of my family members or relatives to either smoke or drink. It does not mean I would dictate my opinion to others. If we want to prevent people from smoking or drinking more, we need to encourage anti-smoking/anti-drinking education at early ages.

[Rational Jew]

Irrelevant. Drinking impairs your ability to drive regardless of how old you are. That's why driving when under the influence of alcohol is illegal at any age.

True. But if you look at the statistics, prior to 1984 most of the driving incidents occurred by people between ages 16-21. These statistics are being repeated by MADD. How would smoking influence you when you drive? And, as I said, if we want to be a model of "free nation", then we need to stop proposing such ridiculous bills.

[muman613]

Smoking should be banned. It can't be compared with drinking. Drinking is okay in moderation but smoking is never okay. Alcohol is a drink. Smoking is disgusting and poison.

Alcohol should be banned. The damage done by Alcohol is immense and most people look the other way. But people get weird when they drink, act stupidly, and destroy their health. I have known alcoholics and they are very, very addicted to a dangerous legal poison.

I have not drank to get drunk (not including Purim/Pesach) for over 15 years... I used to hang out with 'partiers' who would have massive beer parties... Oy the stupid things I did in my youth...

[Zelhar]

Because there is no need for the smoking age to be as high as 21. In America, a person who turns 18 is supposedly considered as "responsible adult". If  such "responsible adult" can vote or enlist in the army among other things adults can do, why can't the same adult person purchase tobacco based on will? How can we call ourselves "free nation" when we have the highest age-based restrictions in the world (The only countries which have the higher age-based restrictions are the muslim countries or India)? We cannot compare it to drinking alcohol because alcohol influences you when you drive. If that's the case, then keep the drinking age 21 as the exception but do not raise other age limits.

I'm not a smoker myself, and I would not want any of my family members or relatives to either smoke or drink. It does not mean I would dictate my opinion to others. If we want to prevent people from smoking or drinking more, we need to encourage anti-smoking/anti-drinking education at early ages.

Then Alcohol minimum age should also be lowered to 18. It is illegal to DUI and at 18 since a man is considered "responsible adult" he should be able to understand that he mustn't DUI.

[nessuno]

I looked her up and it said she is the first woman and "openly homosexual" to hold her office.

Ya, she can be and do whatever she likes.  The same doesn't go for her constituency.