Even though the percentage of smokers in the U.S. has been slashed by more than half over the last 50 years, smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the country. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes there are a number of steps that should be taken in order to prevent people from picking up the habit in the first place.
In a statement of public policy [PDF] released this morning, the organization calls for, among other changes, the smoking age to be increased to 21, a ban on flavored tobacco, and restrictions on marketing and sale of non-tobacco nicotine-delivery devices like e-cigarettes.
According to the document, nearly 9-in-10 adult smokers got their start before the age of 18, and “Middle and high school students often obtain their first tobacco products from older children.”
The organization hopes that making it more difficult for older teenagers to obtain cigarettes, they won’t be as likely to give their younger pals their first smoke.
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5 comments:
Ya, 18 works, just go by any school and see all the under 18 year old's smoking, so 21 will really work.
And yet the most basic, common sense approach, is the one nobody talks about, because it would get to the root of the problem:
Put a strict limit on the amount of addictive nicotine in each cigarette. Since the tobacco companies are known to add nicotine to tobacco that "isn't addictive enough", it's a no-brainier.
Then gradually lower the amount of nicotine each year. If people still want to smoke cigarettes, it will be for some other reason than addiction.
Why don't you raise the Draft age as well. If you can't be trusted with the decision to smoke or not at 18 then how can you be trusted to be given a gun and take out our governments enemies.
What will we get rid of next? Flavored liquor??
9:11 AM: There is a reason they won't do that. They don't want people to stop smoking. There is a lot of money churned through the system by smokers. They can't tax what people don't want. unless it is healthcare!
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