I open up the paper this morning and I see this:
LOS ANGELES — California will become the second state in the nation to raise the smoking age to 21 and will begin regulating electronic cigarettes like other tobacco products under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday.
Source: California Raising Smoking Age to 21 – The New York Times
I guess California can’t trust its eighteen year olds to decide for themselves whether or not to smoke just like they can’t trust them to drink alcohol. They need another three years of maturing before they can make those types of decisions for themselves.
Which has me wondering why eighteen year olds can be trusted to vote, or join the military. How can we trust them with their own credit accounts? We allow them to put cars and houses in their names and accept the liability that ownership of those entails but we won’t allow them to drink or smoke.
Why is that?
