McConnell proposes raising the tobacco age to 21

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think the age to buy tobacco, buy a gun, play lotto and gamble, engage in sex work(pornography/nude stripping) should all be raised to 21.

You do realize the inevitable end result of that would be raising the voting age as well right?

No because that would require a constitutional amendment.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Hopefully this is a first step towards a full tobacco ban!

F**k no.

Nobody thinks that tobacco is safe or healthy, and if people want to use it in spite of knowing all the negative effects, that's on them and the Government should allow them to do so.

Wrong. Tobacco is one of the key drivers of Medicare costs. Anybody who smokes is selfishly freeloading on the government dole.

how do the millions (billions? trillions?) in taxes smokers have given to the govt and the fact that they tend to not need a lot of Medicare after they're dead at 64 factor into this math? 



edit-also, aren't fatties an even worse driver for Medicare costs?  or at least very comparable?

The problem is that thanks to Big Tobacco lobbying, Medicare Part D provides very little coverage for tobacco cessation aids. Basically it only covers Chantix, which is a pretty extreme solution that many doctors are reluctant to provide (it's a drug that works by cutting off the brain's access to the receptors that call for nicotine when addictive, essentially temporary brain damage.)

Fiscally this makes zero sense. It's far cheaper to pay for someone's Nicorette than it is to pay for their lung cancer treatment. Hell my current employer offers tobacco cessation programs to all employees for absolutely free, because the amount it saves on health insurance premiums far outweighs the cost.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think the age to buy tobacco, buy a gun, play lotto and gamble, engage in sex work(pornography/nude stripping) should all be raised to 21.

You do realize the inevitable end result of that would be raising the voting age as well right?

 No, voting has nothing to do with any of those other things which are almost all exploitive.

Yes it does. If someone is deemed by the state as too immature to drink or buy tobacco or a gun or gamble, why should they be able to vote? They're too immature and incapable of making their own decisions.

You and McConnell are dead wrong - the age for all of these things should be 18, not 21. You're either an adult capable of making your own decisions or not. But if the government persists in treating 18-year-olds as children for vices, there's no reason they shouldn't be treated the same way for virtues.

Yes, alcohol and marijuana are fun drugs with social benefits that should be able to be enjoyed by all adults, including 18 to 20-year olds. But tobacco is just nasty and is is only used to feed addiction thanks to Big Tobacco marketing.

Ideally the drinking and marijuana age would be 18 and tobacco banned. But since that's not likely raising the tobacco age is better than the status quo. I remember being pissed by the tobacco age when I was under 21 because I found it insulting I could legally buy a drug I had no interest in but not the one I wanted to. At least this would be less unfair.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I wouldn't be surprised if this dude comes up proposing voting age 21.

He's not getting a constitutional amendment for that passed so no.

Besides Republicans now believe that 18-20 year olds are a Republican-voting demographic, the super conservative Gen Z canard. It's 20s/30s who hate them in their mind (correctly!)