Thought I might as well have one on smoking as there's one on drinking.
Most of Europe the legal age is 16.
I believe it's 20 or 21 in the States.
I had my first one when I was 13 or 14, but I never got addicted, although I have a few sometimes with my friends.

I believe it's 18 in the States. It's also 18 here. I think it should be lowered to 16. Coz if teens can actually do it, they don't actually wanna do it that much. Rebels and all haha.

But heck it's so easy to get cigarretes so what's the point?

I see the poll is split 50/50

my guess is those who are legal to smoke say 21 and those who arent say 16
and yah...legal age in the states is 18 for smoking

Lol I'm still illegal and I don't intend on smoking. It stinks and it makes your skin look bleh.

Why would you want to smoke anyway. Not only does it look unattractive, it's really bad for your health. 90% of all lung cancers are caused by cigarette smoking and thousands of people die each year.

yea... I guess it's something inevitable. Thousands of people die because of road accidents but that doesn't mean we can ban road vehicles... well it's different but similar...

The thing here is that it is preventable.

Hmmmm smoking is legal for all ages....its only illegal for you to buy them unless you are 18 or older...but i think that tabacoo should be outlawed totally...i had to watch my grandpa die from lung cancer so i wouldnt want ne one else to have to do the same

I've been smoking for quite a long time and I know that when it was illegal for me I'd still find ways to buy them. Although this may be a little hypocritical, I still wouldn't like to see people below the age of 18 smoke, especially for since some people start just because thier peers are doing it. I know that if they want to, or are addicted, they are going to find ways to buy them and the law isn't going to stop them. But I think that law does keep a lot of underage kids from smoking, if the legal age was 16, probably more kids around that age would smoke. Even though from what I've seen quite a few do.

Are road accidents not preventable?

okay, I know what you mean, but then again, it's just as difficult to prevent

LOL, it's very different, and you know what I mean.

I completely agree with what Roxanne said - smoking is the number one cause of death...that's preventable! It's sad to see people at any age smoke. This makes me mad. It irks me to see such idiots smoke because peers do...BE YOURSELF! Hardly anyone is themself these days. This is the same with drinking, in a way, though. Also, as stryker said, it isn't illegal to smoke - only to buy cigarettes.

so exactly how does one propose to prevent deaths from smoking?

Making them stop...

...well that's quite easy to say, but I want to know how one would stop people from smoking. It isn't that simple

But your question was, "How do you prevent deaths from smoking?" Ban them now, you won't have addicts. Of course, you can't do it all at once because we don't want a repeat of prohibition.

well the answer you gave me was pretty obvious and I would have worked that out myself... sorry, I'm not trying to be rude here.

Yea, the problem with banning them is that not only will there be a repeat of prohibition which would cause an increase in crime, a lot of economies are supported by the tabacco industry and that's why governments have always been reluctant to listen to health activists.

people smoke because they want 2. No 1 is forced 2... if u cant handle the peer pressure, get new friends.
Why shud i b illegal? Just bcuz its bad 4 u, doesnt mean its wrong. Its ur choice, it helps ppl relieve stress and lose weight, let it b. It shud stay legal, (16) and allow ppl 2 choose for themselves.

They shud lower taxes on it 2, they use bad health as an excuse 2 get money. we all kno the consequences of smokin, if u still wanna do it, b my guest, just dont smoke around me.

by knowing the risks beforehand and not starting in the first place.

I think it miht be to low, but you never know. When my mom was a kid there was no law about smoking, so she started when she was 13. Now she's in her 40s and cannot quit. It's disgusting anyway.

it doesn't matter what age it should be legal to smoke .. people smoke illegally anyway =/ ..

it should be banned! its killing alot of ppl.... right now.... sumone juss died of smoking.... im tried very hard to make my daddy quit! but he wont!

it should be illegal! its disgusting!

smokin should be illegal no matter wat. dey take yrs off ur life. i cant stand da smell

I agree. It's bad for you. I wouldn't want to try.

Smoking is for insecure losers.

Well it's public knowledge that it's bad for you, doesn't stop very many from doing it anyways

Well I'm neither insecure or a loser!! I have a house, a car, a career, and two beautiful healthy kids. Hardly loser status .

Just because you dont like something doesn't mean it should be illegal...this is a Democratic country.

Would I have started knowing what I know now-n-days...probably not, but what's done is done and has been for about 15 years. If I truly wanted to quit then I would.

No ones tellin any of you to put a cig in your mouth, just as no one "made" me do it all those years ago. People who push it off as peer pressure are the insecure ones, because they don't have enough gumption to stand up and take responsibility for their own choices...albeit not a very good choice, but hey...you live and learn.

I can understand from the standpoint of those on welfare, and the workers in this country pay their insurance for their bad choices, but don't generalize everyone.

back then smoking was allowed in high school!!!
you know what's stupid?
the United States grows the cleanest tabacco but we don't use our own tabacco in our own cigarettes! instead, it gets shipped to europe and our american cigarettes are made with crappy cheap tabacco from 3rd world countries..

Britain has the cleanest cigarettes...their tabacco is inspected and completely pure.

well?

why do people smoke anyways? it's suicide

dang...i can't believe I still remember what that smoking video was about

Did you want me to go in to complete detail? You were asking pretty simple questions...Anyways, I never said to ban them completely, although I'm against it. Yes, it helps the economy, but still, it disgusts me very much. To think that people actually smoke these cancer sticks (practically) and not give a care in the world. Yes, there are people that are older now who can't stop smoking, but that's only because they weren't warned about it. Now, you have ads everywhere about how smoking is horrible for you; they still don't listen because they're stupid. I don't think it should be banned completely (as I said, prohibition, and fall of economy), but at least make it legal at an age so that people are mature enough to decide and whatnot, which I think, is older than twenty-one. There will still be teenagers that smoke, mind you, but for those people I could care less for - they can go ruin their lives for all I care...that's their decision. I just don't want to be affected whatsoever by getting second hand smoke.

I say at least 21 so that people can get a brain be4 they start smoking.

they should ban smoking... or they could also raise the price.. so people will not be able to buy 1.. well i myself dont smoke

No one should have to watch one of their loved ones kill themselves slowly...also, you shouldn't be allowed to buy an addicting product that causes cancer. But seriously, everything these days causes cancer. Are they gonna ban cell phones too?

I know it's totally different, but you can see a little bit of my point.

I would never want to smoke, and it should be illegal I suppose, but I voted 18. It shouldn't be lowered to 16, definitely not. 18 is fine...

If they would raise the price, though, no one would buy it, and the economy would go down. That's why I think we need it, but we should raise it.

*Sigh* If only it was banned a long time ago.

smoking is very bad! i dun think anyone should do it at any age i mean why would u want to walk around with bad breath and yellow stinky teeth?! GROSS! and afterwards u would smell like it to! ewwww i think its very bad and no one should do it why would u want to die faster? its like every u smoke it decreases ur life span.....

well put Kathleen. I agree 100%.

I am not a fan of smoking so I did not vote. It is wrong to judge the people that do smoke, but I dont agree with it.

well i kinda think that smoking should b illegal but i picked 18 since its more fair

I understand where you are coming from, but some people started smoking and later realized it was wrong, do you know how hard it is to quit or maybe how horrible they feel when they see people critisizing them, I think that it should be leagal, but only for adults 18 and over. People usually start smoking before they are mature enough to realize how stupid it is, if the law is 18 it gives them time to see that.

to call people stupid because they choose something you don't like is not only naive but ignorant.

I dont like anime but i dont go around calling everyone here stupid...although anime doesnt harm your health...it's a choice none the less. Letting yourself get 200lbs overweight will kill you too, but i dont call heavy people stupid.



um...where have you been?? The price has gone up about $1.oo/pk in the last year and a half.

The money raised by cintax (which is cigarette tax) went to build our brand new football stadium in Cleveland...funny part is...it's ok to let people smoke enough to pay for the new stadium, but then disallow smoking in the stadium( which is outdoors). Many of the new things in neighborhoods are paid for by smokers, and then they are told not to smoke in them....now that's just hypocritical. It's ok for you to smoke so we can have state of the art facilities, but god forbid you light up in them once there done.

i have to agree with dasturbd. It is very naive to brand someone stupid for smoking - as far as I can see, dasturbd, who I believe smokes, is just as intelligent as any one of you, if not more. A lot of very intelligent people do smoke, but it's wrong to call them stupid or insecure just because they do, until you actually meet them in person.

You may soon have friends that smoke (when you go over the age limit), if you haven't already, and although you may not want them to smoke around you, they'll still be very nice people who you wouldn't dare to call stupid or insecure losers. It's wrong to go straight from the transition of smoking=stupid

TY tk and yes I do smoke, I have cut down significantly over the last few years but still do regardless.

Its not like I advocate smoking especially for those underage, but it's an individulas right to choose and who the hell is anybody to tell someone NOT to make their own choices or belittle them when they do!

I can't turn back the hands of time and go back to before starting, but I do clue my children in as to the negative effects of smoking and would like for them to never start. Just because I smoke does not mean I want them to and that comes from personal experience.

I grew up in a family full of smokers and I absolutely hated it and said that I would NEVER start that "nasty habit"...yet look who did. It's easy to sit there and say...Oh I will NEVER, but I'll be curious just how many of you youngins change your tune by the time you hit my age.

Never say Never, because you don't have a clue what the future has instore for you.

I hope many of you don't ever start, but I bet at least 50% of those who are ridiculing smoking now will smoke eventually (if they dont already and are just afraid of being bashed in this forum)

It seems to be more about popularity here than honesty

So you tell your children all about how bad smoking is for you, while you light up and inhale on one of those absolutely delicious cancer-sticks? What a great example!!!!

I did my teenage smoking thing, and it lasted for all of a couple months. I smoked when my friends did, and it was stupid...I don't understand the concept of lighting leaves on fire and sticking them in your mouth, anyway! ...But then to justify it and act like we're all being unfair to you and other smokers is just silly.

Heck yeah I am glad that the cintax stuff bought the stadium. I know lots of smokers, and they are my friends and I love 'em, but that doesn't mean I want them to give me cancer, too...maybe the high prices of ciggarettes will at least encourage them to stop.

It's right that you shouldn't be allowed to smoke anywhere public. I think it's nasty at restaurants and the like to be sitting anywhere NEAR someone who's smoking. And the whole non-smoking/smoking sections does virtually nothing!

If you want to smoke and give yourself cancer, then that is fine, but to smoke around your loved ones and even strangers, giving them lots of yummy secondhand smoke to inhale is rude and wrong.


...and that was my complete honest opinion. Nothing to do with popular vote for me.

exactly...

I've had a lot of advice from teachers about what smoking does to your body throughout elementary and middle school, including a disgusting picture of what smoking has done to people in different parts of the body. So by the time I was 14, I was totally against it and I thought I'd never touch a cigarette in my life.

However, it didn't take too much time till I did start having the occasional smoke. Stupid? Well, I don't agree that grades at school have anything to do with intelligence, but if they do, I've been getting straight As throughout my life and smoking hasn't changed anything. Low self-esteem/wrong friends? I have plenty of friends, some that smoke, some that don't (in about a 50/50 ratio). They're all part of the same "group", showing that we respect our own choices and are aware that you can't judge a person by the choices they make.

Just because I've been taught of it doesn't make much of a difference to what I choose to do in the future, and as dasturbd pointed out, you'll all have tried one by the time you're 17/18 and some of you may have taken it up. Obviously I'm not encouraging it and rather have you not start at all. I'm justing saying that you shouldn't rule out the possibility that you might.

Back to the question I asked before - how would you propose to stop people smoking? Educate them so that they understand the consequences? I understand the consequences and probably know just as much as any of you, if not more. So what was wrong with me?

First of all I don't just "tell" my kids about the negative effects, I am honest with them. If being honest is a bad example...then sue me, but at least I'm not a hypocrit. I've smoked for the last 16 years...well before I had my kids and after that long to just "quit" is not as easy as your experimental stage (in which I see you chose the peer pressure way out). I have gone from 3 packs a day to 1 a day in the last 5 years, so don't sit there and attempt to degrade me as a parent when you don't even have a clue. When my kids ask me why I started smoking, i tell them the truth, that i wanted to see what all the hype was about and i liked it.. it wasn't until later on in life when I realised just how hard it is to quit.

I never once asked for pity in here because I smoked and I never once said that anyone was "picking" on me or smokers...I simply said that it was naive to categorize someone based on the fact that they smoke and that then means they are unintelligent and insecure.

So you don't hang around with your smoking friends anymore then right?? Cuz you don't want them to give you cancer...so you cut all ties huh?? You also don't go out in the sun with anything less than spf 50 too I bet, or have never eaten fast food...because I know more people who have died from congenital heart disease than those that got cancer from smoking.

I'll tell ya what, I won't blow smoke in your face as long as you don't blow smoke up my @ss. You are all of 16 yrs. old...hardly wise enough to be giving me advice on my parenting skills. Wait another 16 years and then talk to me about how bad of an example I am, after you yourself deal with decisions you've made in the past. Unless of course you are the almighty perfect human who will never make a decision to do anything you may regret later in life.

well i suppose some people could come in here and post a comment without reading any of the others...

It should be illegal at all ages. If there was no smoking, people would live longer and more people would be alive today.

Okay, so the "people who smoke are stupid" remark was from me, but I'm here to justify that I think teenagers who smoke are stupid. Yes, I agree that you have the right to make your own decision, but...this is about what age do you think it should be legal to smoke (or buy cigarettes). I believe it should be older than twenty-one because by then, people will be mature enough to decide, much like yourself, dasturbd. From going through the high school experience now, I see a bunch of morons (sorry if I offend anyone, but hear me out) who sit there, listening in health class, when a discussion of peer pressure is in place. Of course, those teenagers that listen and smoke anyways give off this "rebel" attitude, thinking they're above the law. They're not. It's fine if you want to smoke when you're older. Hey, if you don't want to listen to the smoking ads on TV, then fine. I respect you, dasturbd, because you are trying to stop smoking, and I apologize for anything I might've said that offended you, but my direction is towards teenagers. Sixteen years ago (when you started), I'm sure the knowledge of cigarettes wasn't as enforced as it is today. I can understand how you got started on them. I can understand how anyone before this generation got hooked on cigarettes. I don't blame them whatsoever. I know it's hard to stop, and they didn't know the affects tobacco had on their health back then because no one knew. Still, would you not agree that today, smoking hazards have a tremendous impact on society? So let's look at your point of view, tkproduce. You've tried it. You knew the risks. I ask you: why do you still do it? Yes, I'm sure there will be people that smoke in the future, but you can't assume that the others that are complaining about cigarette smoking truly aren't going to touch one in their lives.

hmm... let's see... the last cigarette I had was about 2 months ago and the last one before that was probably another 2months before that. I don't smoke regularly, I just have a few on some occasions. If a few cigarettes now and again shortens my lifespan by a few months and spare me from the miserable last days of being an old man who can barely walk or talk, then that's fine with me.

I see you've changed your argument slightly from people who smoke to teenagers who smoke (I guess we've all changed our arguments slightly). Obviously I'm against underage smoking, so I agree with you on that point. But in Europe, the legal age is 16, so some people that do smoke are inevitably going to be teenagers. However, that doesn't seem to change the fact that the percentage of smokers at the age of 21 in other countries where the age limit is higher, is roughly the same as countries in Europe. That kind of tells me one thing - most people are mature to make their choices by the time they are 16.

You have to realize that Europe has a different culture than us, you know.