A new tobacco free generation

[baller21]

Can Brookline’s New Anti-Smoking Law Create a Tobacco-Free Generation?

A Q&A with LAW’s Katharine Silbaugh, cosponsor of Brookline’s new first-in-the nation ordinance linking tobacco sales to birth date

www.bu.edu

A new ordinance in Brookline, Mass. ties being able to buy tobacco to birth date, not to age. Anyone born after January 1, 2000, cannot legally buy tobacco or vaping products.

I’m 100% in favor of adopting this nation wide.

 

[motorcy90]

Can Brookline’s New Anti-Smoking Law Create a Tobacco-Free Generation?

A Q&A with LAW’s Katharine Silbaugh, cosponsor of Brookline’s new first-in-the nation ordinance linking tobacco sales to birth date

www.bu.edu

A new ordinance in Brookline, Mass. ties being able to buy tobacco to birth date, not to age. Anyone born after January 1, 2000, cannot legally buy tobacco or vaping products.

I’m 100% in favor of adopting this nation wide.

If you are old enough to vote and serve you are old enough to choose what to do as far as alcohol/tobacco.

 

[madguy30]

In before cave but I've loved seeing tobacco smoking fading the last several years.

If I see a movie or whatever from most decades prior to 2005 my eyes sting just seeing all of the smoking going on.

 

[baller21]

If you are old enough to vote and serve you are old enough to choose what to do as far as alcohol/tobacco.

Not legally.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

So basically prohibition? Ya that's going well for all the other drugs everyone does anyways...

 

[t-noah]

Not legally.

True.

I don't know about the tobacco and vaping. I'm against both now but used to smoke (short time) and chewed (longer). Thankfully done with both!

I know the social and medical reasons. However I still think we should have choices. Perhaps just increasing the taxes to make it hurt more to 'use'. Have that tax money go to medical fund of some sort.

I don't know.

 

[baller21]

So basically prohibition? Ya that's going well for all the other drugs everyone does anyways...

Let’s just legalize all drugs than.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Let’s just legalize all drugs than.

Much better idea.

 

[Cyched]

Prohibition hardly ever works as advertised.

Seems like the decline in smoking has been a good combo of education and a cultural shift.

 

[baller21]

True.

I don't know about the tobacco and vaping. I'm against both now but used to smoke (short time) and chewed (longer). Thankfully done with both!

I know the social and medical reasons. However I still think we should have choices. Perhaps just increasing the taxes to make it hurt more to 'use'. Have that tax money go to medical fund of some sort.

I don't know.

By raising taxes you’re punishing current smokers who are already hooked. By denying sales to those not old enough to buy yet you eliminate them from ever getting addicted.

 

[JP4CY]

Prohibition hardly ever works as advertised.

Seems like the decline in smoking has been a good combo of education and a cultural shift.

And ads. From cartoons to baseball scoreboards.

 

[baller21]

And ads. From cartoons to baseball scoreboards.

I’d be on board for also banning advertising for alcohol and gambling.

 

[mywayorcyway]

I'm 100% in favor of this. Having been afflicted myself, here's the difference I see between tobacco and pretty much everything else. Tobacco is the only drug that has zero benefit. It doesn't get you high or buzzed. It doesn't reduce pain. It doesn't do anything other than make you want more tobacco.

I'm not advocating for other drugs, but tobacco makes no sense. Everyone knows what it does to them, but that doesn't stop anyone. There's a reason the tobacco companies are willing to pay for stop smoking ads. It doesn't matter.

 

[iowastatefan1929]

Yes this could work, nicotine is up there with heroin and meth on addiction scale and completely pointless, the buzz of nicotine can be mimiced by spinning around in a circle and getting dizzy.

 

[baller21]

The majority of current smokers will tell you that they wish they could quit. So why not do everything we can to help future generations from getting addicted to a drug that only empties their wallets and possibly kills them?

 

[CloneIce]

I read recently that smoking has made a bit of a comeback. Mostly due to COVID boredom last year, and the social aspect of it in 2021 as people flooded back out to bars, ready to party, with a lot more drinking going on in outside areas.

 

[aauummm]

Brookline has a real problem in regards to it's new law actually achieving what they intend it to do. Brookline is a small (1.5 mi wide by 4 mi long) suburb of Boston, surrounded by neighborhoods of Boston and the county to the west. No location in Brookline is more than one mile from the city limits of Boston or the county line. You know where the cigarettes will be purchased; across the street in Boston or to the west in the county.

It would be pretty hard to stop someone from going across the street to Boston, purchasing the cigarettes and then smoking them on private property or in their own home.

 

[isutrevman]

Let’s just legalize all drugs than.

Now you're on to something.

 

[isutrevman]

The majority of current smokers will tell you that they wish they could quit. So why not do everything we can to help future generations from getting addicted to a drug that only empties their wallets and possibly kills them?

I could make the same argument about sugar and alcohol.

 

[baller21]

Brookline has a real problem in regards to it's new law actually achieving what they intend it to do. Brookline is a small suburb of Boston, surrounded by other suburbs. No where in Brookline is more than one mile from the city limits of a neighboring suburb. You know where the cigarettes will be purchased; the neighboring suburb.

So it would be pretty hard to stop someone from going to a neighboring suburb, purchasing the cigarettes and then smoking them on private property or in their own home.

True but it has to start somewhere right?