Increasing smoking age will do nothing

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Even though the United States entrusts 18-year-olds with the
responsibility to go to war, operate destructive weaponry and cast
their vote for the leader of the “free world,” it
won’t allow them to make private decisions about their own
bodies.

As if not being able to drink alcohol until age 21 was bad
enough, the California Medical Association wants to extend the
number of restrictions the government imposes on individual civil
liberties by raising the state legal smoking age to the same age.
The group, composed of 35,000 physicians, hopes making cigarettes
less accessible will curb smoking among young people.

But the problem with this is the same as with trying to regulate
everything else: people will do it regardless. And trying to
enforce a law that makes smoking illegal for people under 21 will
only create more bureaucratic hassle and red tape in
California’s already exhausted judicial system.

Those who support more aggressive attempts to curb smoking
usually argue that their own civil liberties are jeopardized
because their health is placed at risk by others’ smoking.
While it is understandable that smoking should not be allowed in
airplanes, restaurants or other places that make people unwillingly
subject to smoking, raising the legal smoking age is different
because it bans an entire population’s ability to smoke
anywhere. One of the most fundamental aspects of liberty is that if
something doesn’t cause harm to others ““ such as
smoking in private or in open, non-confined areas ““ people
should have the right to do it. Curbing smoking among young adults
by law rather than by educating them about potential dangers
seriously overlooks this principle. If the government won’t
allow 18-year-olds to smoke, then don’t draft them
either.