NJ Lawmakers look to raise age to purchase cigarettes to 21 (2013, city hall)

[GiantRutgersfan]

NJ Lawmakers Seek to Raise Smoking Age to 21 | NBC New York

Two New Jersey lawmakers are pushing to make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase cigarettes, joining efforts in nearby New York City.

State Sen. Richard Codey and Assemblyman Ruben Ramos were appearing at New York's City Hall Thursday with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who recently announced her own intention to raise the smoking age in New York.

The New Jersey legislation would raise the age from 19 to 21 statewide.

“Anything we can do to prevent someone from becoming a new smoker and avoid smoking's harmful effects on them and society is a step in the right direction,” Codey said in a statement. “For laws such as this where it would be so easy to cross state lines to purchase tobacco, neighboring states need to work together and that is what we are doing today.”

The City Council says the city legislation, which would raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, will go for a vote by the end of the summer.

Officials cited a 2010 New Jersey Youth Tobacco Survey that said 14 percent of New Jersey high school students smoke, and of those smokers, 5 percent reported smoking on a regular basis.

Let people do what they want to do is what I say. Its 2013, everyone is well aware that smoking is bad for you.

[camaro69]

So if young people under 21 aren't smart enough to make a decison to smoke, guess we need to raise the voting age also.

[manderly6]

That is just embarrassing.

[captne76]

Fine with me. The people that I know that regularly smoke aren't really far up there in the food chain to begin with. In other words not the sharpest stick in the barrel.

[nybbler]

Excellent, more customers for my black market ciggy business.

[tahiti]

trying.......trying.......trying......nope. don't give a sh**

wtf can afford cigs anyway?

[kjd72]

So if they raise the age that will stop young kids from smoking? Drinking age is 21 and somehow kids get liquor illegally.....so tell me how things will help?

[GoYanks34]

Originally Posted by captne76

Fine with me. The people that I know that regularly smoke aren't really far up there in the food chain to begin with. In other words not the sharpest stick in the barrel.

Looks like the same can be said for non-smokers with that ignorant comment since you choose to base your opinion on an entire group of people based on a few that you know. Last I checked Veterinary Medicine colleges are among the hardest to get into and last I checked my diploma says Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. And I smoke. There are a lot of very unhealthy things people do all the time that are just as bad that I do not do. My personal favorite was a guy who came up to me while I was smoking to lecture me on the dangers of cigarettes - he was about 350 lbs.

[njkate]

lawmakers need to stop nannying and attend to issues such as state budget.....property taxes....etc
If one can join the military and have a rifle strapped on their back, if they can legally enter into legal agreements such as credit cards, loans, vote, if they commit a crime they are tried as adults they should be allowed to buy cigarettes if they choose....either back off or raise the age of becoming a legal adult to 21.

Smoking is soooooooooooooo bad for you yet they stop short of allowing it to be grown and sold....beause it makes the states too much money in the form of taxes...such BS

[Docendo discimus]

The smoking age was raised to 19 in NJ? I totally missed that.

When they say that the smoking age in NJ is 19 (or 21), does that mean that you have to be that age to PURCHASE cigarettes, or to both purchase AND smoke/possess?

When I was in high school the smoking age was 18. What I always heard was that you had to be 18 to PURCHASE, but that you could still smoke if you were younger than that. When I was a freshman, there was a kid in one of my classes who thought he was Schneider from One Day at a Time and had a pack rolled up in his shirt sleeve, along with a cigarette tucked behind one ear. No teacher ever did anything about it or reported it. And under-18 kids smoked at lunch and after school across the street (no smoking on school grounds, but across the street was OK) and they were never approached by any cops (the station was right there). So I'm assuming that means, at least back then, that the smoking age referred to 'cigarette PURCHASING age', but you could still smoke if you weren't of age. I also remember hoards of under-18 high school kids in diners and at Headquarters Plaza in Mo'town (you were allowed to smoke indoors there, once upon a time), cops everywhere, and no one said or questioned anything. Has that changed?

I can see how raising the age to 19 is a good idea because it makes it harder for all high school kids to have access. But raising it to 21 seems pointless to me.