City Wants to Make 21 the Smoking Age, Too

This post was authored by C. Zawadi Morris. 

Say what you will about New York's decade-long crusade against smoking, the latest move announced this week is the intellectual equivalent of putting the cookies on the top shelf. 

A proposal announced by New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn would raise the age to legally buy cigarettes and other tobacco products in the city from 18 to 21, a measure that would give New York the strictest limits of any major American city, reported The New York Times.   

Critics argue that if 18-year-olds are old enough to fight in wars, to drive and to vote, then they also should be able to decide whether they want to take the risk of smoking.   

Not so, according to New York City. The move is a final step in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-smoking campaign that started with bans on smoking in restaurants and bars and eventually was expanded to parks, beaches and other public places.  

“With this legislation, we’ll be targeting the age group at which the overwhelming majority of smokers start,” said Quinn said, according to the paper.  

Although the proposal sets the legal age to purchase tobacco products at 21, it would not prohibit people under 21 from possessing or smoking cigarettes.