OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- Raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products has been a hot-button issue this year. It seems to be everywhere, from Hawaii becoming the first state to officially raise the smoking age to 21 to the policy statement released by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) this week calling for the United States to raise the age nationwide.
“Tobacco is unique among consumer products in that it severely injures and kills when used exactly as intended,” reads the AAP statement. “Protecting children from tobacco products is one of the most important things that a society can do to protect children's health.”
The question is, are 18, 19 and 20 year-olds actually children?
Yes, when it comes to alcohol. Not so much when it comes to voting, enlisting for combat, renting an apartment or getting a credit card.
Though, even for alcohol, that wasn’t always the case. As my parents frequently testify when fondly recalling the University of Dayton-sanctioned keggers they’d throw in their freshmen dorm, 18 was once what I like to think of as the national “adult age,” meaning the country recognized that if you could fight in a war, you were also grown up enough to enjoy an adult beverage.
It wasn’t until 1984 that the National Minimum Drinking Age Act effectively forced all states to increase the minimum age. Much like today’s calls to increase the tobacco purchase age, this act was passed as an effort to “save the children.”
The problem is when you have this gray area between child and adult, it’s increasingly difficult to enforce such laws. I can remember when I was in that 18-20 age bracket. Like countless others, it was not a problem to obtain alcohol—and it wasn’t through fake ID’s or careless clerks. Why risk it when I was at a college campus filled with “of age” students who were happy to pick up an extra bottle of cheap, cheap vodka for us under-21-ers?
The funny part is, it was distinctly more difficult to find an older friend to buy me a pack of cigarettes when I was under 18. It wasn’t that I didn’t know people who were old enough to buy them. It was that, for the most part, it made people uncomfortable to “contribute to the delinquency of a minor” by buying a 15 year old cigarettes (yes, this was actually said to me).
It goes back to that concept of the adult age. Regardless of the law, most people recognize 18 as the entrance into adulthood. Does it mean that you magically turn into a responsible adult on your 18th birthday? Of course not. Are some people more capable to make adult decisions than others at 18? Definitely. But unless we’re going to try to develop some kind of test to prove your “adult-ness,” 18 seems to be the standard that’s been set.
I don’t disagree with organizations like the AAP that want to keep tobacco products out of the hands of children. But 18, 19 and 20 year olds are not children, at least not by the legal definition. If we as a nation are allowing them to make the adult decisions of joining the army, dropping out of high school or going into massive credit card debt, how on earth can we tell them they’re not mature enough to decide whether or not they want to smoke?
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.