Posted on 08/28/2015 9:48:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Berkeley City Councilman Jesse Arreguin proposed Tuesday to ban the sale of tobacco to youths under 21, saying there’s been an alarming increase of underage tobacco use, including a large jump in the use of electronic cigarettes.
Arreguin said if the City Council passes his plan next month, Berkeley would join Healdsburg, New York City and the state of Hawaii as the only government agencies to bar such sales.
Currently, it’s legal in California to sell tobacco products to youths who are over the age of 18.
Noting that Berkeley banned the use of e-cigarettes in public places earlier this year, Arreguin said, “Berkeley has been a leader in fighting smoking and increasing the age for buying cigarettes would be another step.”
He said that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the use of e-cigarettes by high school seniors has risen from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 17.2 percent in 2014, an increase of more than 250 percent.
Arreguin said that although e-cigarettes are perceived to be less harmful than traditional tobacco products, they’re no less addictive and represent a gateway to conventional cigarettes. He said almost half of adolescents who have never smoked a traditional cigarette but use electronic cigarettes say they plan to smoke a cigarette. Arreguin also said nearly 90 percent of smokers begin before the age of 18.
He said, “That’s why we have to do everything we can to prevent our youths from getting sucked into such an addicting, life-threatening habit.”
Arreguin said alcohol is deemed to be dangerous enough to require that buyers be at least 21 and he thinks tobacco should be considered equally “as dangerous to personal health and to the health of others.”
Citing statistics from the nonprofit group DoSomething.org, Arreguin said studies have found that nearly all first use of tobacco takes place before high school graduation, about 1.5 million packs of cigarettes are purchased for minors annually and about 30 percent of teen smokers will continue smoking and die early from a smoking-related disease.
He said a high percentage of people who buy cigarettes for minors are between the ages of 18 and 20 so he thinks increasing the age for purchasing cigarettes will make it harder for young people to get them, even if it still wouldn’t make it illegal for minors to smoke. The idea is to decrease access and consumption of tobacco, Arreguin said.
In addition to increasing the age for buying traditional cigarettes, the proposed ordinance would raise to 21 the age for the sale of e-cigarettes and paraphernalia, he said.
If the ordinance is approved, stores that sell tobacco products to youths under 21 would lose their tobacco retail licenses and be subject to fines, Arreguin said. The Berkeley City Council will consider Arreguin’s proposal at its September 15 meeting.
Old enough to fight for the Country, then one is old enough to drink, smoke, etc.
meanwhile they’d like to lower the age of consent to about 10
That is very Establishmentarian of them.
...months.
Time for me to start a black market in Berkeley.
...and lower the age for weed to 12.
He’s doing it wrong.
Create an under 21 tax, something moderate to start and say that it will go to help the underprivileged (or some such BS)
That way, Berkey isn’t taking away any ‘freedom’ or ‘choice’, after all, just like abortion, it’s their body, their choice?
Do not get the anti-e-cig craziness. The vast, vast majority of e-cig users are former smokers using a far less toxic alternative.
I saw an article that said the CA
Senate passed a bill making it 21 for the whole state.
rofl
*thud*
Its about control. Period.
A liberal says it is a right to kill your baby before birth, to commit suicide with a doctor’s assistance, but illegal to enjoy a cigarette. Even more hilarious, they also ban looking like you’re smoking a cigarette.
So tell me, are they raising the age for using marijuana?
Thank God kids will only be using pot, X, and Coke, not those evil tobacco products.
/sarc - for those who need it
...and call murdering a two year old abortion. Because the terrible twos are, you know, terrible.
(I shouldn’t have to put on a sarcasm tag. But I will. I’m not advocating the murder of babies. So, this post is SARCASM.)
Contradictory to the recent proposal to raise taxes on cigarettes another $2/pack. Damn, no wonder California is broke, they’re also dumb as a box of rocks...
I don’t see a problem as long as you say they are too immature to smoke...the same logic should occur with being too immature to vote....too immature to get a driver’s license....too immature to get a credit card or house loan....too immature to get a $75,000 student loan...etc.
The problem is an agenda-based episode.
That wouldn't surprise me.
Some leaves are more equal than others.
Smuggling cigarettes to teens will be a very lucrative business model in Bezerkley very soon
Typical. Liberals scream about freedom, and compromise another one.
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