9:28 am ET
Apr 22, 2013


City Wants to Raise Age for Buying Cigarettes

    • Teenage sex leading to children having children does more to rip our social fabric.

    • About time can't drink so why allow smoking

    • Why not just get rid of them all together??? Oh wait, they need the tax dollars. Hypocrites.

    • Hey Mikey, I'm a 18 yr old white male who's going shooting this weekend. I'll be sure to shoot with cigarette hanging out of my mouth and a 64oz coke in one hand...what a colossal douche you are.

    • Just in time! Get this done before they legalize marijuana!

    • Are there any independent, individual-choice making adults in NYC or is the entire voting population a collection of wet-nursed sissies? Listen, just because it is a good idea to not smoke, drink 32oz sodas, etc, doesn't mean it's a good idea to legislate it. Grow up.

    • I do not think a law prohibiting buying has a strong enough impact to deter young smokers. Is there a reason they don't make it illegal to smoke under 18? (I am asking out of curiosity - why not treat it as underage drinking?) It is depressing to see young children walking around smoking. Anyways, just increase the tax on it - make it more difficult for any age to buy and at least get more money for the city at the same time.

    • Cigarettes are poisonous, carcinogenic, and highly addictive. Second hand smoke is a menace to the public health. Ban them or make the cost prohibitive.

    • Gosh, and where will those 18-20 year olds be able to find smokes? This will just stimulate the market for contraband, untaxed cigarettes.

    • I think this is a great idea. Everyone knows cigarettes are actually chemical syrups soaked up into wrapping paper, right?

      At 18 years old, any choice an individual makes is based on a minute amount of life-experience, nearly devoid of intelligent adult wisdom.

      By age 30, these smokers who are chemically addicted to a high-priced, zero-return-on-investment product begin to experience the first stages of health degeneration from their habit, e.g., poor lung capacity, poor attention spans while going through withdrawal between smokes, and there's also the lack of scent and taste too.

      By age 40, these addicts will be completely aware that they are bound to a chemical product that is agonizingly difficult to stop using. It costs them a fortune as they smoke more and more on a daily basis, and are subjected to other financial costs, e.g., increased prices of health and life insurance, and even possible denial of employment by companies who don't want the liability.

      By 50 they are on there way to lung cancer, as well as mouth cancer and other serious chronic illnesses. If they are unemployable and can't afford health insurance, when they go into hospitals for treatment they be become society's problem, and society pays the bill.

      By 60, those with lung cancer will all be nearly dead, or coming up on their time. Without the funds or insurance to pay for the services they need for end-of-life treatments, once again, society picks up the tab. Those who do have insurance cost the insurance companies a fortune, far beyond what the individual had paid into the system, so once again, the rest of us absurd the difference in cost and pick up the tab for our friends the smokers. If they have debt or are broke, they leave nothing for their children, who won't be receiving any life-insurance payments anyway because it was too expensive for the smoker to get.

      In the end, death by lung cancer comes. It is ugly (like all death) and I've heard, especially painful, so much so that patients need to be filled with pain medication to the point of incoherency, so they die, confused and incoherent, leaving behind nothing but grief for their kin knowing their silly little "harmless" habit got the best of them.

      There are many ways to live and die. Why anyone would forfeit the best things in life to suck on burning paper wrapped in a cocktail of chemical tar is beyond me, but since children are incapable of making experienced adult decisions, the least we can do as a society is guide them to make the best choices whenever possible. Raising the smoking age to 21 is a small positive step.

      I started smoking when I was 14-years old, enamored by Joe Camel cartoon advertisements. It was NY City's public ban on smoking and the Patch Program that finally helped me kick the habit, along with the support of my family, and I will never look back. If you know someone who smokes, help them quit.

    • Apparently New York government officials have no understanding of economics if they think that this idea will curb smoking. Liquor stores and tobacco shops in neighboring states thank you for increasing their business.

    • Sure now make young kids feel like criminals .. Ah liberalism at its best ! Do as I say NOT as I do ....

    • Once upon a time there was a land with a few reasonable laws which for the most part the citizens obeyed. Then more and more laws were enacted, some reasonable, some not. At first the people just ignored the silly laws, but over time.........

    • I say let them smoke.
      They can enlist, and are qualified to go to war. So they are mature enough that we can train them to kill people.

      Besides, cancer research is going so quick that by the time they get sick, we will be able to fix them with a shot, administered by a pharmacist at Walmart!!!

    • Can we designate smoking only areas and charge a fee to be in the areas? Personally, I do not care to share my air with cigarette smoke.

    • Yet another stupid idea from Liberal America. When I was 8 years old, the minimum age for purchasing cigarettes was 21, yet I had absolutely no difficulty in purchasing them. The age in most states is currently 18, yet children much younger than 18 seem to be able to obtain cigarettes. So, raise the age to 100 if you wish. It won't stop young people from smoking.

    • So, let me get this right: 18-year-olds can serve on the front lines in Afghanistan, but smoking's too dangerous for them.

    • That's ok steve, 14 year olds can buy the morning after pill. Mommy Bloomberg knows what is best for you. Not!!!

    • Utter hypocrisy!

      Can we trust Mr. Mayor on anymore

      His utter hypocrisy shows when he wants gay marriage while this man doesn't even believe in marriage. He never married the woman he has been living with for many years!

      Let him set a moral example for the youth rather than worry about all the nonsense he has been recently been peddling to New Yorkers!

    • "Each of these proposals is specifically aimed at reducing smoking among young people."

      If nicotine is banned, they'll have to switch to pot.

    • Actually, they should :
      Eliminate all age restrictions for buying cigarettes
      Cut the cigarette taxes
      Advertise on TV, radio, magazines, etc
      Cigarette tax collections would rise as more people smoked...
      AND, the social security and medicare problems would be solved as a result of declining lifespans.

    • The do gooders strike again. All they will achieve is creating a black market for cigarettes.

    • smokers were skinny
      Now they are (mostly) fat, how can that be?

    • You can be killed in Afghanistan at an age lower than 21. That's certainly more dangerous than smoking

    • New York City Logic - Bumper Sticker version:

      If I am 14 and pregnant, (which can only happen via what is legally described as 'rape') - "Keep your laws off my body".

      If I am thirsty or wish to choose a method guaranteed to cause a slow, painful death - "Buy your Thirstbuster at 7-11, not McDonalds; and buy your smokes from a Virginia bootlegger"

    • Wow, I am not a smoker, but this is sad. What happened to personal responsibility, accuontability and choice? This guy seriously needs to be elected out of office.

    • In the land of hypocrisy, why not make it illegal to smoke outdoors in public ?
      Its a perfect irony.

      Next Mayor Bloomberg should make fellatio mandatory in public to support the gays in equal rights.

      I can only await with baited breath the next inane proclamation from our political leaders buying votes.

    • Is there no limit to what NYC and Bloomberg would like to regulate? Cigarettes, sodas, what's next....fast food, type of car I can buy, how much I should save, how many hours I should workout?

      Where does it all end?

    • When I lived up in the hood several years ago, there were guys selling newports for $5 a pack.... All Bloomy is doing is making a new business for the bootleggers.

Add a Comment


About Metropolis


    • Metropolis on Facebook