Should have a don't care option. Because I don't. It's the persons choice to die from lung cancer or not. Raising the age doesn't affect anyone but the people who are trying to smoke illigeally.

Seems.a bit pointless raising the age to buy them if they're not raising the leal age to smoke.. If people want to smoke they will find a way around this.

It truly saddens me to see so many people here supporting this kind of laws, and even asking for more... As someone who doesn't consume tobacco, alcohol, marihuana, and even avoids using pharmaceutical drugs as much as possible, I'm all for personal choice. I'm no one to tell others how to live their lives, and I don't want others to tell me how to live mine. Live and let live.

I do agree of course that the right of others who want to avoid smoke should be respected (which includes me), but that's why there's laws against smoking in public places. This should be enough to balance both rights, and is certainly easier to enforce.

On a related (and anecdotal) note, my 62-year old father has been smoking for more than 40 years now every day, and he's fortunately one of the healthiest people I know. No cancer (despite his parents having it), no heart disease, no major surgeries so far. He does happen to have a very healthy diet, so there's that. No sugar at all for example... (should that be banned too ?) It just goes to show you though that these things are not black and white. That there's so many elements that determine a person's health that you can't just reduce it to one or two simple actions. And as someone mentioned before, pollution is probably responsible for far more damage to our lungs than we give it credit for... Specially on the big cities...

land of "freedom".

Libertarianism, reality. Reality, libertarianism.

Almost nobody smokes in Norway anymore. Our school recently had a visit from a german school, roughly 20 students, and half of them smoked. Most of us were shocked, and it made me realize that all the stuff our government have done to get the stuff out of our country actually worked.

So they hate taxes? Because that is going to take away 18-20 year olds buying high priced and taxed cigarrettes. Plus all the other taxes earned from cigarrettes such as jobs, travel, shipping, etc. Medical....
But they must know what they want. Rahm Emmanuel in Chicago wants to just raise taxes. See, he is not stupid andit will cut tobacco use down I think.

I hate smoking but "This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" comes to mind. I still think the legal drinking age should be 18 in the US. Politicians are stupid assholes.

In other news, licorice pipes might become legal again here in Norway!

Lots of countries have an age restriction for purchase but no age restriction for use. In New Zealand the purchase age is 18 but people under 18 can legally smoke including in public (i.e. outside).