House Bill pushes to raise legal smoking age to 21

The war on personal responsibility is dangerously close to claiming its next victim. This time, it's smoking.

Rookie Rep. Walker Hines, D-New Orleans, has filed House Bill 240, which, if passed, would raise the minimum purchase age of cigarettes from 18 to 21, according to The Times-Picayune. The bill does not spell out penalties for potential offenders, but Hines claims "if someone does not start smoking by age 21, that person probably will not smoke."

This lapse in judgment would bring Louisiana up to par with such civilized nations as Kuwait and Sri Lanka.

Less than two years ago, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law Senate Bill 742, prohibiting smoking in most public buildings and bars attached to restaurants - excluding free-standing bars and gambling outlets such as casinos.

The law, written by Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, could be supplemented by Senate Bill 185, a new measure from Marionneaux that would ban smoking in any bar or restaurant where food is served "at any time the bar is open to the public." State law prohibits smoking in restaurants but allows smoking in bars that serve food.

The original bill signed into law by Blanco is reasonable. If a person is eating and cigarette smoke wafts in his or her general direction, the disgust in understandable.

But in a bar or casino, where an age limit is imposed at the door, cigarette smoke is expected, especially after factoring in a repayment of a cover in certain establishments if one steps outside the locale to fire up a joe.

This proposed bill could have the exact opposite intended effects on youths and adolescents wishing to have a cigarette. The limit, rather than curbing underage smoking, could further promote the notion that cigarettes are cool. Making them less attainable only adds to their appeal and temptation.

According to a 2006 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 3.3 million youths aged 12 to 17 reported using a tobacco product in the month before the survey. For perspective's sake, 10.8 million of that age group consumed alcohol, and the mean age of initiation to marijuana was 17.4. Half of those surveyed said marijuana was "fairly or very easy to obtain" - marijuana is illegal, and one could imagine the relative ease with which adolescents could obtain cigarettes.

Raising the minimum smoking age to 21 will not only fail to curb underage smoking, it will increase its popularity among adolescents eager to practice illegal activities.

After all, whenever someone says you can't do something, isn't your first urge to do it anyway?

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