So the federal government decided in the most recent omnibus spending bill that they would institute a nationwide raising of the legal age to consume tobacco and vaping products to 21.

Personally, I am not only opposed, but genuinely curious as to where they think they have the legal authority to enact this. The legal drinking age being 21 is a federal endeavor that came about by the feds threatening to withhold 10% of each state's federal highway funding if those states failed to enact state-by-state drinking ages at 21. This is because such regulations are state's rights, not entrusted to the feds. But here we are watching the feds assume powers they don't have, and most people don't seem to bat an eye.

Legit question: will 18-20 year old people be tried as adults for breaking this law?

Neo liberal/neo con goons doing what they do best.

I've always used the logic that if you can be conscripted into the military at 18 , then you should be able to drink and I guess now smoke.

One day we will have sane drug policies and treat people with respect and dignity and not treat drug users or people selling weed/cigarettes like criminals.

probably in the same way 18-20 years olds are tried for underage drinking but to a much lesser extent and scope
i don't agree with the new law provision as helpful as it may be to the general public

because telling teens that they shouldn't smoke showed them just how uncool it was to shrug off the concerns of authority figures.......

smoking is already dying out naturally, its just dumb to breathe life back into it by giving it some counter culture status....

vaping bans followed up by raising the age for cigs. but we have no federal talk of pot legalization. 2019 has been a real fucking drag....

The objective is not punishment rather it's to lower the usage rates.

They probably won't be tried, at most be given some ticket but i think it's more geared towards sellers. The business owners who fail to comply will get the stick imo.

I lean libertarian on some things but not sure i'm against this tbh. Smoking is objectively bad. If we were to quantify the health damages of smoking they are into the billions. Even if this law reduces usage rates by 5% resulting so the taxpayers, health insurance companies save hundreds of millions is it really such a bad thing?

I understand the principle libertarian argument here but to me cost-benefit >

Fuck a nanny state.

Lmao

Not all freedoms are created equal or worthy of protection. My kid is not going to have the freedom to play in traffic or skip school.

I just look at a place like China where 1 in 3 people (totaling like 300 million) smoke and the immerse problem that is and will be for them as a society and i can sleep very well at night with taking away the freedom for teens to make dumb choices.

no one has the freedom to do either of those. both are ticket able offenses. one for all people, one for children. tickets for 18 year olds smoking isnt the same.