New Jersey to Raise Smoking Age
New Jersey’s legislature has passed a general smoking ban in public places that the (acting) governor is expected to sign into law. Nothing new there. It’s the Politics of the Warm Fuzzy Feeling.
Atlantic City’s casinos are exempt from the ban. Nothing surprising there. It’s the Politics of Pull.
New Jersey is also likely to raise the smoking age to 19 (sorta kinda — 18-year olds apparently would be able to smoke cigarettes, they just wouldn’t be able to buy cigarettes). Nothing logical there. But who cares? It’s hack politicians expressing “the will of the people” (if not the will of 18-year olds).
I blogged about a similar proposal in New York back in May. My point then, and now, is that the new tolerance for unbridled majoritarianism will increasingly result in anti-liberty travesties such as this. “Eighteen-year olds” are a permanent minority with a permanent lack of political power. It is just such a group that needs and deserves the protection that flows from acknowledging rights that are immune from majority vote. Like the right to be an adult and purchase a legal product, no matter how many people think you shouldn’t.
Gays encounter this new-found fetish for elevating the will of the majority over the rights of the individual all the time. Now it’s 18-year olds. Tomorrow it will be some other group — perhaps some permanent minority that includes you.
If so, then what can one say except: good luck with that.
Hat tip to Hammer of Truth.
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- Where There’s Smoke, There’s Litigation
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I have zero objections to restricting those under 21 from drinking, since it has been statistically proven that a higher drinking age has lowered the number of drunk-driving deaths. Young people are much more likely to abuse alcohol than those who are older. I don't care if a kid drinks and then kills himself in a car accident. But I do care if he kills OTHERS.
But smoking? Give me a break. The only harm they will have is to themselves.
But are 18-year olds really a class of people? After all, everyone who is older than 18 was 18 at one point in time. So theoretically, this law affects everyone going forward.
DL-
Do you not view 2nd hand smoke a significant factor?
That said, I find smoking bans silly- and I used to bartend and inhale the stuff all night.
I think 2nd hand smoke is a factor. But until you prove to me that an 18 year-old's second hand smoke is more dangerous than a 21 year-old's second hand smoke, I fail to see how the state has an interest in banning the former but not the latter.
I can provide ample evidence that an 18 year-old drinking is more dangerous to pedestrians than a 22 year-old drinking. The latter is much less likely to actually get behind the wheel of a car when drunk.
I think banning smoking in restaurants and bars are a violation of property rights. But honestly, since I hate smoke, I don't lose sleep over it.