Inside Albany is a public television show on New York state government. The most recent show had a story on legislative efforts to raise the age at which one can buy cigarettes from 18 to 19.
One of the sponsors defended the bill by pointing out that the average smoker takes their first puff around age 14.
Huh?
If the average smoker starts at 14, then how will raising the legal purchase age from 18 to 19 make any difference?
Supporters say that raising the age would help get cigarettes out of schools, because few high school students are 19.
Most young teens who start smoking get them not from random upperclassmen but from siblings or friends. Kids tend to have friends around the same age as them. And a 14 year old with an 18 year sibling eventually becomes a 15 year old with a 19 year old sibling. So what's going to change?
And they wonder why New York legislators don't have the greatest reputation.
You can buy alcohol legally when you're 21, cigarattes when you're 18 (or 19 if some people have their way). You can enlist in the military when you're 18. You can drive when you're 16 but with restrictions until you're 18. The state would be better off establishing a single, standard age of majority. The current situation sends a bizarre message to kids: we trust you behind the wheel of a ton of metal before we trust you to defend our country. We trust you to defend our country before we trust you with a cigarette or a bottle of beer.
The same episode of Inside Albany also talked about how a joint legislative committee decided to let each county decide for themselves which voting machines to use. This is in relation to New York's much-belated compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
HAVA was passed to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election debacle in Florida where... each county decided for themselves which voting machines to use.
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