California Raised the Age Limit to 21

[litup]

The headline of the linked LA Times article summarizes it pretty well: California Tramples on Smokers' Rights
LA Times Article on newly passed Legislation

 

[deathmetal]

On Thursday, the Legislature gave final approval to six bills that clamp down on adult smoking by raising the legal age to 21, allow counties to tax tobacco products, hike fees on retailers and distributors and wipe out the few workplace smoking exemptions in the current law (such as private clubs and motel rooms). One of the bills applies all of the same restrictions on tobacco to the nascent but growing e-cigarette industry.

Brutal. As usual, the real motive is to take in more tax money to spend on whatever they waste it on.

 

[captainprophesy]

on whatever they waste it on.

Their bloated salaries!

 

[litup]

Something else mentioned in the article was particularly troubling for me on a personal level:
"Another bill in the package would delete the few exemptions in the current law regarding smoking in the workplace, such as in some hotel rooms, private clubs and cigar lounges."
If this happens, I'd have to kiss my monthly Pipe Club meeting goodbye. And for what purpose? Everyone that attends a pipe club meeting does so by choice. Who would this law protect?

 

[litup]

Deathmetal - you beat me to it. That passage, as I noted above, was really distressing to me.

 

[cigrmaster]

This coming from the state that has the worst smog in the country. You could chain smoke 3 packs a day and not get the poisons people get sitting in traffic for 1-2 hours everyday. Fuck Kaliforinia hypocrites. I just wish the big one would come and make Arizona beach front property, starting March 16 as my oldest son is flying here to Florida on the 15th.

 

[jackswilling]

Nanny liberals hate tobacco. So glad I moved out of California since I like guns and pipe tobacco and California hates guns and tobacco.

 

[mso489]

Pipe smokers, and smokers in general, don't vote as a block, nor single-issue, so they look like a revenue stream for taxation. We could kick in for a class action suit, but that would be a different sort of tobacco tax, but might work if state governments in general go beyond limits. The age issue doesn't bother me. The young will try smoking anyway, as they try everything else. But the legal prohibition on pipe smoking virtually everywhere seems like a clear problem. Next perhaps laws against argyle socks.

 

[fordm60]

So you can at age 18, or less, jump out of a perfectly good airplane behind enemy lines and kill people or be killed by people or both. But by the Gods you had better not smoke, or drink for that matter, before your 21. Yes, killing or dying is good to go, just don't smoke or drink it's bad for you lmao!!

 

[litup]

I think the ironic part of it is that they included exemptions for people in the military. So, you sign up to fight for the country, you can smoke a cigar on your 18th birthday. If you don't sign up to put your life on the line, your health is too precious to risk it with the freedom to smoke.
The takeaway: the California legislature is concerned about the health of young adults but only those that choose to avoid the military. Who cares about the health of our soldiers?

 

[deathmetal]

Everyone that attends a pipe club meeting does so by choice.

This one has always baffled me with bans on smoking at bars. People go to bars to take risks. The Nanny State needs a holiday.

The point of the thousands of behavioral restrictions enacted into law is teaching people to obey.

Asserting control. Fits with Plato's theories of democratic drift toward tyranny.

 

[warren]

Apparently the majority of the good people of California have happily ceded such decisions to their legislature and are willing to live with it. Good luck to 'em!

 

[jackswilling]

^^^ Yes indeed. Feel sorry for the good people who are unable to move out.

 

[buroak]

And now we know the real reason Lex Luthor wanted to drop California off into the Pacific:

 

[jpmcwjr]

Well, as a Californian for just 35 years, I am used to such crap, part of the price for living here. But so far I haven't been arrested or even warned for pipe smoking in public. In addition to no smoking in bars, some cities here prevent you from smoking in a pipe shop. It's worse in the U.K. Pipe shops cannot let you sample a small bowl; have to sell you some.

 

[instymp]

Hate tobacco but love their Hippy Cabbage.

 

[carver]

Money's a red herring, IMO.
The real goal is the gradual erosion of autonomy.
The point of the thousands of behavioral restrictions enacted into law is teaching people to obey.

I agree, you can see that everytwhere, but it's slow. because that's the only way we can accept it, gradually.

 

[deathmetal]

Apparently the majority of the good people of California have happily ceded such decisions to their legislature and are willing to live with it.

In 2016, Plato appears an even greater genius.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Hate tobacco but love their Hippy Cabbage.

That's the really interesting thing. The current political agenda would outlaw tobacco and institute stronger drugs.

Get people hooked, ban the one and introduce the next strongest thing. Rinse and repeat, eventually have people addicted at birth and dependent on the Pills of Life, distributed exclusively at your local government obedience center... Oops, I mean, "Healthy Living" center.
At least that's what I would do if I wanted to control the world.

 

[fishingandpipes]

RIP the Occidental in San Francisco, the last bastion for a scotch and a smoke in that godforsaken city, I guess.