New Smoking Legislation Is Unnecessary

Damielys Duarte/Staff Writer

The New Year has begun and with it has come a trail of controversial legislation passed in the last month. On Thursday, Dec. 19th, the legal smoking age was raised to 21 after pressure from multiple organizations regarding health problems. But despite these valid concerns, raising the minimum age was the wrong move.

The rise of e-cigarettes has no doubt led to increased numbers of teen users who are often peer pressured into the fun flavors. And while a large portion of highschoolers had easy access because of their age, that doesn’t mean they won’t find other ways to get their hands on vapes.

In a recent federal report it was found that one in four 12th graders, one in five 10th graders and nearly one in ten 8th graders say that they have vaped nicotine in the past month. In the case of 12th graders it’s safe to assume the high volume is due to their legal age to buy tobacco products.

However, the fact that the 10th and 8th graders aren’t far behind in use, highlights the fact that no matter the minimum age, kids will find someone who can provide it to them. Oftentimes this desire for wanting what we can’t have leads to minors spending ridiculous amounts of money on fake IDs and getting into all sorts of trouble.

In 2010, recreational and medical marijuana had not yet legalized almost anywhere in the United States. However, it was found that 21 percent of high school seniors used marijuana in the past 30 days, while 19 percent smoked cigarettes.

Talk about restrictions. If teenagers were capable of getting their hands on illegal substances, what’s going to stop them from obtaining products that will be legal for them in the next few years? It’s not uncommon for older friends and family members to supply kids with tobacco and alcohol. 

There are no real societal effects besides self-harm to using tobacco products, seeing how they do not affect our senses. And while there are serious health risks to using tobacco products, if we are old enough to vote for the leader of our nation, we are also old enough to decide what we put into our bodies, for better or for worse.

We would have been better off leaving the age as it was instead of forcing teens to find other avenues of getting what they want. At the end of the day, those teens are probably going to smoke anyway when the ripe age of 21 comes rolling around.

Featured photo by Lindsay Fox on Flickr.

 

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