Smoking

A law currently passing through Parliament in England will from 1st January 2027 outlaw the purchase of cigarettes and tobacco by anyone then under 18, ever at any time during their lives. It will not be illegal for them to possess or smoke tobacco, only to buy it, meaning that they will always have to get someone older to do their purchasing for them. Of course, as time goes on there will be fewer and fewer people left who can legally do the buying, and eventually no one at all, signaling the end of the trade.


Nothing so drastic is proposed yet over here, but I was a bit surprised when I recently purchased food at a local store here in Vermont, I noticed that tobacco cannot be sold to citizens under 21. How is it that we allow young citizens to drive massive cars and trucks at speeds that allow them to kill other innocents (and themselves) at the age of 16, and join the military at 18, but not to choose to purchase tobacco?


Thousands of teenage Americans die across the U.S. each year in car accidents, and I am unsure if even a handful die due to tobacco. It is true that tobacco might kill you later in life, but is that not a lesser evil than dying in a head-on crash at 16? Further, seemingly hypocritically, we allow children who are eight years old to purchase candy bars, soda, and many other chemical-infused addictive products that lead to major health issues and kill millions later in life. We fund this food system through taxation in the public schools.

So why do we allow an eight-year-old to choose products that may one day condemn them to an early grave, but they cannot choose tobacco until 21? And why can an 18-year-old risk his life in battle, but not choose to enjoy tobacco if he wishes?

Perhaps the correct question is to ask why some privileged people are allowed to decide what others can and cannot do. I am sure many who have told others, through laws, that they cannot partake of tobacco, have themselves engaged in dangerous behavior, such as driving or eating processed sugar. It all reminds me of what C.S Lewis once wrote:

“Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.  It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies.  The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”


And by voting, these young 18-year-olds can decide what laws others must obey, meaning they can decide what adults can or cannot do, what taxes they pay, and more. This, we believe, they are mature enough for, but not for deciding whether to smoke tobacco.
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