7104

Sorry for the absence, life has gotten in the way.  That aside, another news story I heard on the way in got me irie as the Rastas would say.  I heard that New York is thinking of instituting a new age limit on tobacco, raising it to 21 from 18.  The fact that somebody is of legal age to fight in a war, go to jail as an adult, etc., etc,. but banned from something else due to age is asinine.  I feel the same way about alcohol.  If you want to put age restrictions on these things, make the legal age of adulthood 21, but don’t get butthurt when you lose a significant military and workforce.  (sarcasm)Obviously these people are not old enough to make their own decisions so we shouldn’t hold them to the same standards of everyone else (/sarcasm).  The second part is the fact they are considering legislation at all.  Have we learned nothing over the years in regards to legislation tell us what we can and can’t do?  People are going to do what they want to do, criminalizing it is only putting a larger burden on tax payers to cover legal costs.  Prohibition only increases criminal activity. Now if you want to increase education on the subject to help people make better informed decisions, I’d green light that.  Educating people to the potential harms of whatever they choose to do is acceptable, as long as that education isn’t forced.  However, given the information, if somebody still chooses to use tobacco, or alcohol, it is their right to and they will suffer the consequences.  People were given free will for a reason and the government should not criminalize that free will, with a slight few exceptions (i.e murder and crimes against children).