New York City aims to ban cigarette sales to under 21s

Started by garbon, April 22, 2013, 03:50:56 PM

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garbon

http://news.yahoo.com/york-city-aims-ban-cigarette-sales-under-age-142530178--sector.html

QuoteNew York City took the first step on Monday in outlawing sales of cigarettes to anyone under age 21, in an effort to reduce smoking among the age group in which most smokers take up the habit.

The bill, which was introduced by the City Council and has the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, would make New York City, which already has the highest cigarette taxes in the nation, the first big city or state to set the smoking age at 21. Currently, individuals must be 18 to buy cigarettes.

Eight in 10 adult smokers in the city started smoking regularly when they were below the age of 21, and most smokers who are under age 18 obtain cigarettes from individuals who are just a few years older than them, city officials said.

While an increase in cigarette taxes contributed to a 15-point drop among youth smokers from 1999 to 2007, the number of high-school-aged smokers has held steady at about 8.5 percent over the last six years.

Cigarette packs sold in New York City currently carry a state tax of $4.35 and a city tax of $1.50 - making it the most expensive city in the nation to be a smoker.

"Too many adult smokers begin this deadly habit before age 21," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. "By delaying our city's children and young adults access to lethal tobacco products, we're decreasing the likelihood they ever start smoking, and thus, creating a healthier city."

The bill marks the latest effort in the city's decade-long fight to discourage smoking, which the city's health commissioner, Thomas Farley, said was the most significant cause of preventable death in the city. In 2003, Bloomberg outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants, and smoking has since been banned in other public places, including parks.

Quinn, who is running to become the city's next mayor, made clear that she would continue Bloomberg's aggressive public health agenda - which has led his detractors to dub him the "nanny mayor."

MOST TOBACCO USE STARTS IN ADOLESCENCE

While most of the city's anti-smoking initiatives have originated with Bloomberg, the mayor did not join Quinn in making the announcement on Monday, instead sending Farley to say that the mayor looks forward to signing the bill into law.

Every U.S. state prohibits retailers from selling tobacco products to minors and in most states the smoking age is set at 18. Four states - Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah - require that a cigarette purchaser be at least 19 years old.

In New York, Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island have already boosted their legal age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products to 19.

Nearly all tobacco use starts in childhood and adolescence, according to the 2012 report by the U.S. Surgeon General, which declared smoking a "pediatric epidemic" both in the United States and globally.

According to the report, 99 percent of all first use of tobacco occurs by age 26. The report also found that if youth and young adults manage to avoid smoking or other tobacco products, very few will begin smoking after that age.

Evidence suggests that once youth start smoking, many find it hard to quit. Of all adult cigarette smokers in the United States who smoke daily, 88 percent started smoking by age 18, according to the report.

Currently, about one out of four seniors in high school - youth aged 17 or 18 - smoke on a regular basis. Among those who continue smoking, half will die 13 years earlier than non-smoking peers.

It was not immediately clear how the tobacco industry would respond to the proposed legislation, which Quinn said she hoped would become a model for the rest of the country.

"Our companies follow the law whatever it is in any jurisdiction," said Jane Seccombe, spokeswoman for Reynolds American Inc, the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, American Snuff Co and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. "We believe no minors, however they're classified in those jurisdictions, should be able to access tobacco products."

She declined to comment on any potential sales impact from changes in the minimum age.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Caliga

0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

fhdz

You know, I'm trying to get a Freedom Boner about this and be all irritated...but I just can't. It'd be easier if cigarette smoking were a victimless vice, but second hand smoke sux big time.
and the horse you rode in on

derspiess

Well, this will make smoking cooler among 18 year olds.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Malthus

Seems pretty obvious that the laws are going to gradually tighten up until cigarette smoking is illegal period.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Caliga

Quote from: Malthus on April 22, 2013, 04:18:02 PM
Seems pretty obvious that the laws are going to gradually tighten up until cigarette smoking is illegal period.
...and yet marijuana laws in the US are getting increasingly relaxed. :wacko:
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points


fhdz

Quote from: crazy canuck on April 22, 2013, 04:31:29 PM
It surprises me that sales to minors isnt regulated already.

In most US states, you have to be 18 before you can legally buy cigarettes.
and the horse you rode in on

crazy canuck

Quote from: fahdiz on April 22, 2013, 04:33:05 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 22, 2013, 04:31:29 PM
It surprises me that sales to minors isnt regulated already.

In most US states, you have to be 18 before you can legally buy cigarettes.

Ah, I see. 

garbon

Quote from: crazy canuck on April 22, 2013, 04:31:29 PM
It surprises me that sales to minors isnt regulated already.



Yeah a confusion that can come about if you don't read up to the 3rd sentence of an article. :P
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

HVC

No booze, no smokes. You guys just don't want anyone under 21 to have fun.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

derspiess

"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

garbon

Quote from: HVC on April 22, 2013, 04:46:50 PM
No booze, no smokes. You guys just don't want anyone under 21 to have fun.

If only the alcohol age being 21 kept kids from puking on my sidewalk and subway platforms. :(
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

11B4V

"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

garbon

Quote from: Caliga on April 22, 2013, 04:20:24 PM
Quote from: Malthus on April 22, 2013, 04:18:02 PM
Seems pretty obvious that the laws are going to gradually tighten up until cigarette smoking is illegal period.
...and yet marijuana laws in the US are getting increasingly relaxed. :wacko:

I don't see the hypocrisy in tightening overly lax laws and at the same time relaxing overly strict laws.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.