# Smoking Age **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2023, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140 "2023-10-05T11:57:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/101 "2023-11-05T17:42:39Z")
For me & spouse, it’s pretty clearly a cultural difference in what normal, healthy drinking looks like. For my cousin, it’s pretty clear that drinking was at least in part self-medication from something that was probably both neurological and psychological. In none of these cases would changing the age of access make / have made any difference. What _would_ have made a difference was better accessible resources to treat addiction and its proximate causes. I suspect that, mutatis mutandis, this goes for smoking, too. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/102 "2023-11-05T21:33:07Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Raising the drinking age to 21 has been somewhat of a disaster. Minors drank before it was changed too. If the limit is 19, 18 & 17 yo drink. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > It was quite the relief when non-smoking happened and then I didn’t have to get fully undressed outdoors in the snow then run naked from front door to shower upon my return. Yeah. My buddy was a non smoker, but he liked to go to clubs once in a while. His wife gave him a really cool suede jacket- which he found out absorbed tobacco stench like crazy. Of course you can’t just pop it in the wash, and hanging it in the closet was OUT, so it had to hang in the garage. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > In my darker moments I just imagine an instant death penalty, administered by any concerned citizen, for littering cigarette butts or packaging. That proposal might have a few problems of its own, though. We can dream my friend, we can dream Cig butts poison children(and animals too)- [https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046181.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046181.htm) For all intents and purposes, smokers are scattering around poison traps for children. > [@kayaker](#): > > Define drinking “to excess”. When I drink, I drink an amount that satisfies my thirst. You do not need booze to satisfy your thirst. > [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > If countries passed federal laws outlawing tobacco products people would cry like babies for a few days after a couple of weeks, it would start to quiet down and after a few months all of the ex-smokers would be thanking the government for out lawing smokes. Not all, but very many . > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > My cousin died of alcoholism… So did my Mom. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/103 "2023-11-06T03:44:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You do not need booze to satisfy your thirst. That’s not your decision to make. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/104 "2023-11-06T06:58:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > That’s not your decision to make. No, it’s science. Now if you want booze, then that is your decision to make. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/105 "2023-11-06T07:32:31Z")
I think one can “thirst” for different things. Water, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, maybe even truth and justice. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/106 "2023-11-06T13:46:58Z")
One can certainly thirst for affection or sex or … ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/107 "2023-11-06T14:47:22Z")
Tripling the anti-smoking educational budget would help more. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/108 "2024-07-17T14:30:36Z")
So the new Labour government in the UK has just announced they intend to implement the smoking ban as outlined above (the minimum legal smoking age going up by one year every year). This was a Rishi Sunak idea that didn’t have a chance to be debated before the election but it turns out that Labour fully supported it and in greater numbers. With a new mandate and a whopping majority there’s a strong possibility this will be passed. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/109 "2024-07-17T22:40:07Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > If countries passed federal laws outlawing tobacco products people would cry like babies for a few days after a couple of weeks, it would start to quiet down and after a few months all of the ex-smokers would be thanking the government for out lawing smokes. This is nonsense. For ten years after I stopped smoking, I craved it and imagined that I was diagnosed with some disease that gave me 6 months to live and thought, well at least I could smoke again for those six months. It is fiercely addictive. On the other hand, while I used to drink, although rarely to excess, I just hardly drink any more. Maybe a half glass of wine once in a while, or split a beer with my wife. And I don’t crave it or even miss it. I guess there are people addicted to alcohol, but it just doesn’t seem nearly as addictive. And, by the way, for either tobacco, or alcohol, or presumably any addictive substance, it seems that if you don’t start till your 20s, it will be much easier to break the habit. I started smoking around 14 (quit when I had a heart attack at 28) but never had more than a sip of Passover wine till after I finished college. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140/110 "2024-07-17T23:07:53Z")
The law I’d like to see is a ban on all flavored nicotine products. That’s one of the ways they’re getting kids hooked on vaping. I think some states already have that, and Ohio is working on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-age/991140.md?page=5)