About the only solid argument for raising the smoking age to 21 is that the age of adulthood should be raised to 21. But nobody is pushing to raise the enlistment age, nobody thinks 20 year-olds should be prevented from entering into contracts, and nobody is advocating for repeal of the 26th Amendment. So 18 year-olds are still adults, for now. And like all adults, 18 year-olds must be allowed to do dumb things like smoking tobacco, eating Tide Pods, or voting straight ticket Republican.
Young adults will make dumb choices. All of them will. Don't act like your kids will be different. Anyone who has attended middle school knows kids will get their cigarettes somewhere. Only by accepting the consequences of these choices does a young person gain the wisdom and experience needed to make better choices in the future.
By the way kids, smoking is a stupid, stupid thing to do. Only boomers should be doing it, and that's only if some other disease is set to kill them faster than the lung cancer. The tobacco industry was behind the push to raise the smoking age. This is the same industry that produces those cheesy "Truth" anti-smoking ads that make me want to light up. The tobacco industry wants official disapproval of their product, because they know it will make you want to buy it. This is how they stay in business even after killing off thousands of their own customers every year.
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