Smokey Logic
June 04, 2002
Life in California:
Age 14....Age to be tried as an adult and sent to jail for life.
Age 16....Age of Driving Privledge (some restrictions apply)
Age 18...Age of Consent , Gun Ownership, Military Service & Voting
Age 21....Age to legally Smoke?
Seems as though my fair California politicians, seeking to get votes instead of actually dealing with a problem, are looking to raise the age at which one can legally buy tobacco in California to 21. The reason? Because research says that if you haven't started smoking by the age of 21 you aren't ever likely too. Brilliant misuse of science there folks.
Instead of...I dunno...raising the price of cigarettes outside of a 14-17 year old's reach, which studies have shown have a dramatic impact on stopping teens from smoking we're going to create yet another new milestone in our ever widening path to "adulthood" in society.
It's par for the political course in making sound bites over sound policy. In my adopted state, we believe you are perfectly capable of understanding your actions to commit a felony at 14, but can't figure out if you really want to have sex with someone you like until you are 18 and most definitely can't understand that you are killing yourself with cigarettes until you are 21. Believing the myth that young people are out of control as well as a danger to themselves and society, we'd rather pass, or try to pass, dumb and draconian laws that cost much less to implement than the alternative.
It's a hell of a lot easier to lump young people into one monolithic, hormonally challenged and vaguely "retarded" (meant in the coarsest way possible) class than to provide the education, understanding and a resources necessary to allow them to become thinking, purposeful adults they can be. The former requires an investment in television and print advertisements. The later, an investment in the Future.
Posted by Jody at June 4, 2002 12:45 PM
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