Why is it legal to smoke tobacco while underage?
It seems almost counter-intuitive for a government to enforce strict anti-smoking policies, penalize store owners for selling tobacco to minors... yet at the same time not pass any legislation that deals with the truth that is underage smokers. I am sick of seeing 14 year olds with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths while the government does nothing. They enforce underage drinking laws, why not underage smoking?
Answers:
I don't think that it is illegal to smoke under age, just illegal to buy cigarettes under age. The whole process is rather stupid and does not make any sense. I am a smoker who is trying to quit, but when I started, nothing was known about the long-term effects of smoking. What I don't understand is why in the world a teenager would even want to start now. Besides the health risks, which are well publicized now, it is a very expensive bad habit. The government is as bad as the insurance companies. They won't pay for medicine to help you kick the habit, but they will pay for medical expenses incurred because of smoking. Makes no sense to me at all. Back to your question, I have never known of any action taken to a minor caught smoking. You're right; very counter-intuitive. They're not really tackling the issue. If they would put some severe punishment on minors caught, it would eventually wipe out smoking altogether.
it isnt
Ask Algore's family, who has made their fortune from selling tobacco.
That's stupid. It's illegal in my state for minors to smoke cigarettes. Talk to your congressman.
it is not legal for minors to smoke
Underage drinking is also legal unless you are in public or an of-age person gave it to you. Aren't there better things to worry about than sticking a kid in juvie for smoking? You'll almost certainly harm the kid by doing that.
it isn't legal, its just that most kids stop smoking if a cop comes around, and even if a cop catches them they know its just a slap on the wrist so its a waist of their time to even bother writing up a ticket.
Because the tobacco lobbyists have "bought & paid for" our elected officials in Washington, so they will not outlaw tobacco.
it's not illegal to smoke pot
it is however legal to buy and posess pot.
Law=Law=Law chief.
If a kid spits a cig out. You can't really give him a sobriety test to see if he was smoking it. And every American child has the right to carry daddies cigs home from da licka stow. So I mean.. can you imagine the paperwork? Much easier to go after the adults that sell them.
"Your Honor, I'm quite certain the child smelled of cigarett smoke, and was doing his best James Dean at the time of the arrest."
I think this is a local law enforcement issue. I know of several jurisdictions that make it tough for minors to smoke in any public place.
It isn't legal, cops just don't tend to bother doing anything about it.
Because drunken kids kill others and smoking kids only kill themselves.
I don't think it is legal. I just assume that law enforcement have more important things to handle on a day to day basis. I'm not saying it isn't an issue, it's just not a priority for them.
I believe they enforce it as much as possible. Unfortunately, policing is under staffed and cannot deal with every issue. Drinking causes immediate dangers to life while smoking is not immediate.
Cigarettes are so expensive that adults would beat 'em up and take 'em.Better not give out your location.
Where I live it is illegal to smoke until you are 16 then it is only illegal to buy them.
There are debates about long term affects of alcohol.
The debate on smoking has been decided - smoking is clearly negative and destroys the body.
I think the government figures that if someone is stupid enough to smoke, then we should remove them from the gene pool any way possible. And since mass genocide would look bad, slow burning death works great!
Well, it's not legal for them to smoke, it's just not IL-legal. It's still illegal to possess tobacco if you're underage (just like possession of alcohol), and obviously you have to be in possession if you're smoking.
But with the cops worrying about actual crime instead of being on the lookout for kids with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, they went for the jugular and started to place fines on the store owners who sell it to kids, make schools ban it on campuses, etc. Personally, I think it's better to do it that way than to waste police time with kids who smoke.
I agree. There is no "official" law saying you have to be a certain age to smoke. I do think there are state laws. I think it would be hard to enforce because you can not really "fine" a minor and there is no test that I am aware of to test smoking.. ie a breath-a-lizer test. The government is to worried about the big drugs to worry about the smaller ones. This is an issue we need to address.
it is illegal for children to smoke, but it is rarely prosecuted unless done on school or government property
this is precisely what happens when the government passes laws that it can't enforce. it simply serves to discredit and undermine the law and law enforcement as a whole. it teaches kids that many laws can be broken without any repercussion.
solution? stop passing laws that can't be enforced and always enforce those passed.
i have lived in Texas, Alabama, California, S.Dakota, Tennessee. visited many states and am from Chicago, ill. all states i lived in or visited do not tolerate underage smoking. if a police officer see's a kid with a cig, they stop the kid and question him/her and call the parents. you need to call your state reps and demand they enforce the laws on underage smoking.
Ok, since you're only asking for an opinion, here's mine. I think the fact of the matter is that smoking can be done a lot more descreetly, frankly, than drinking, although my guess would be that most underage drinking affairs go undisturbed, as well.
Plus, drinking often leads to a variety of problematic activities which cause further problems (DUI, unsafe sex, belligerancy), while smoking can stay "seemingly" harmless for years, with only a doctor being able to show the bodily harm, not mentioning the terrible breath.
That's my explanation, and if I was an officer, I'd prioritize stopping an underage drinking than an underage smoking party; plus, there are probably more 911 calls about a party going out of control than for a couple 14-year-old kids smoking by a gas station.
What do you think?
I don't think it's legal to buy tobacco products if you are under the age of 16, but let's face facts.Teenagers will smoke and drink. Our jobs as parents is to educate our children about the dangers in this world, and the trouble with todays society is that it seems parents are too busy to do their job. Some laws are just hard to enforce. I am not an American so I may have a different out look on things, so let me ask you. Is it right that a young man of 18 can vote, go to war for his country and smoke but can't have a beer until he's 21?
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