Please. Underage drinking happens even with a 21 drinking age. Why can't the legal ages for drinking, smoking, porn, etc all be 18? Shame on Hawaii.

18 year olds still in high school will buy smokes and drink for their under age school mates more readily then 21 year-olds.

who will also readily buy alcohol and tobacco for their underage college friends — even more so than those in high school, because college students are far freer than high school students seeing as they live independently and don't have parents watching over them.

The younger one consumes alcohol and nicotine the more likely one is to become an addict.

like signing contracts. Either at 18 you are an adult and free to make choices, including bad ones, or you aren't.

I believe that legal adults have every right to make those bad decisions. And the best way to prevent people from making them is parenting and education, both of which are far more effective then any law. Good parenting and education explain why smoking is bad so that people won't want to do it; a legal ban just says "no".

...

...like alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana (where it is legal and regulated), etc. the question is, or do certain things like sign contracts, marry, drive, vote, etc...
at what age is the only question.
With what we now know about the brain's decision making 'parts' not functioning at maximum until a person is 25 (average), I'd like to see the age raised over the next decades...BUT
with more funding for education, music, arts, dance, etc. for ALL ages, but especially for those 18 to 25.

yeah...that makes sense...NOT

grandson did basic- it would be best to not have a nicotine habit as they did not allow smoking dipping or chewing throughout basic.

edit to add: The age of enlistment in the military should probably be increase so that they make a more mindful decision to enlist but what would that do to the enlistment quotas that are filled by recruiters going to high schools?

Make the punishment so harsh it ain't worth it.

You're old enough to pay for the consequences of your poor decisions, but not old enough to legally be allowed to make some of those decisions.

Our jails are so fulll of people THAT SHOULD NOT BE JAILED FOR SMOKING POT. FOR
GODS SAKE. Tsk Tsk..
If someone serves our country they should be allowed to smoke and drink. simple as that.
and WHEN THEY TURN 21 they can do both. ....AT THE SAME TIME..
LAST I HEARD THAT WAS STILL something us Americans can do and NOT BE THROWN in jail.

by a hefty fine so much that it won't be worth it, in response to a suggestion that the 18-year-old smoking age is a "slippery slope" to high schoolers smoking.

The Joe Camel ad campaign was proven to be a conscious effort on the part of Big Tobacco to snare antsy and rebellious kids as young as twelve. Let me tell you it worked. My son shook the habit in his 20s, as part of a personal health campaign. My daughter relapsed again and again and finally gave up. She started smoking at age 12 and she's going to be 40 this year.

My hatred of Big Tobacco and all their products and advertisements is profound. I don't advocate abolition; that never works. But I would sure love to see their ads banned or severely limited. "Corporations are people, my friend," but corporations don't get cancer -- some of them are a cancer.

It's been proven that there are several things that reduce the number of young people becoming addicted:

Price. Jacking up the tax raises the price. Allowing people to sell loosies lowers the price as the addict is buying just a single dose at a time. College campuses are (or were) a place to buy loosies at retail locations .

Regulations. Treating it like the addictive drug it is and keeping it out of the hands of young people. Punishing retail sellers with sting operations. Only allowing smoking in designated public spaces and making those spaces smaller and smaller.

Changing the culture. Smokers used to "own" everyone else's airspace -- and now they don't. They used to light up in anyone's home or office and assume there would be an ashtray for them. They used to light up in grocery stores and retail clothing stores. They used to fill airplanes with smoke. They used to toss their butts on the ground, sometimes leaving them smoldering and hot -- stores, sidewalks, parks, beaches. These things are simply not done any more, sometimes because it is illegal (such as in airplanes) and sometimes because it is now considered bad manners and a social breach.

Education. But it only goes so far without the rest.

If you can keep teenagers from using and becoming addicted to tobacco products (including vaping and chewing) until they are 21, they almost never start at all. Tobacco companies know that. Prepare for the backlash.

And it annoys me to no end of people becoming total narcissists when they light up. But replace "tobacco" in your post with "alcohol"...and underage binge drinking is STILL a thing. To me, America wants it both ways with vices like sex and alcohol, covering it up from children's minds while demanding that adults be well-informed about them.

To go back to the typical military argument, why can't 18-year-olds smoke if they're considered mature enough to join the military or buy porn?

the air at the Beach Park. I'd like to say to them that they would thank themselves years down the road if they stopped those pricy cancer sticks now.

Interesting that Hawaii Legislature felt the need to do this.

"According to the state Department of Heath, 5,600 kids in Hawaii try smoking each year, and 90 percent of daily smokers begin the habit before age 19. Meanwhile, 1,400 people die from tobacco use or exposure in Hawaii every year, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids."

Wunderbar Hawaii!

I smoked for 18 years and when I decided to quit I used the gum.

Maybe it would work for her too if she tried it.

She currently lives with a woman who is also a smoker.

My own mother was a smoker, and I had to live with her constant failures to break the addiction and her constant beating herself up for being weak-willed, etc etc etc. She was not weak-willed, she was addicted, though nobody ever said that word in the 1950's-1960s-1970s. It was only when she got her first cancer that she was finally able to stop.

It just hurt me to watch that.

I watched varieties of this play out in my family. Dad could stop for long periods of time, and finally gave it up for good. My youngest brother is like that. He no longer smokes. So is my son, though by the time he went on a health kick in his early 20s we already knew so much more about tobacco than we ever had before. My son quit over 10 years ago.

My other brother started about age 12, tried a couple of times to quit, but is co-dependent on alcohol. At 66 he has emphysema as well as alcohol-related problems.

My sister and I have never smoked.

So when I see my daughter's addiction, I see my family. I know that some people are able to quit successfully and others just are not. It is probably the individual wiring in the brain and nervous system. I pretty much keep my mouth shut. Her ex-husband was an extremely judgmental non-smoker and non-drinker, very holier-than-thou about it. On the occasions my daughter has said she's quitting, I give one hearty "Good for you!" and never say another word about the relapse. (Although some day I may ask her if she's tried Nicorette gum. I've very glad it worked for you.)

I reserve my ire for Big Tobacco.

It is beyond difficult to break the habit. The best way to quit is to never start to begin with.

But I have heard that for many people some methods of quitting don't work, while others do.

And I completely agree with what you wrote about kids being targeted by the tobacco companies when they are young. If people don't start smoking by the age of 21, they probably just won't start. I started at 17.

So I support the legislation to raise the smoking age to 21. Over the long run I believe it will dramatically lower the number of smokers.

Smoking kills.

Period.

...with my own profoundly sorta true and eminently helpful proclamation.

Do you have much luck finding people stupid enough to respond to such cheap rhetorical devices? Just curious.

Keep that habit from starting, and that drug regulated.

IF YOU OVER DO IT...and over...or DAILY

I personally DO NOT KNOW one person who is over 25 years old (I am a senior) who isn't addicted to 1 2 even 3 things...and loving it. bacon, sugar, booze, sex, bourbon, speeding in cars, texting...name it...it's all gonna kill us...

Everythiong kills....we begin dying the minute we are born....get a life people....
i will smoke pot when I reach enough pain...(never did in my teens) but legal or not bring it on,
if they want to keep tightening up on all the drugs they are doing now for us seniors.

I think we need one age for adulthood.

....and not being able to sign major contracts and then be held fully responsible for them used to be a recognition of that fact and a form of protection for youth. It was one reason for having a separate criminal justice system for youth as well.

We're not protecting our youngsters very well, in many respects. Each piece has to be argued separately and on its merits -- I especially remember the arguments about being able to die in Vietnam but not being able to vote.

Personally, I'd like to see a policy of gradualism for adulthood. At least we could try to protect them from addictive substances and legal loan sharks until 21.

I remember when one had to be 21 to drink and vote. Those got lowered because of the whole "Old enough to fight and die..." thing.

Then they raised the drinking age back up after too many kids were killing themselves in drunk driving incidents. I always thought it would have been simpler to just raise the enlistment age!

Financial institutions make money off dumb kids signing contracts that they can't possibly understand the consequences of (so 18 for contracts). The military gets more recruits from dumb single kids than older ones who are in a long term relationship or have started college and been exposed to a wide range of ideas(so 18 for military). Insurance companies lose money when dumb drunk kids crash their cars and severely injure themselves and their friends(so 21 for drinking). These three groups have powerful lobbyists and influence with Congress.

18 year olds don't really vote so it is inconsequential to the powers that be.

States (Medicaid), Federal (Medicare) is now acknowledging how much smoking costs them over time. They want it curtailed to save money. With all the new limitations on where people can smoke, the tobacco companies are losing influence as they have less customers so the State and Federal govt. think they can now get support for a 21 year old smoking age.

I think they can get the support and it will be a wave across the country over the next decade. As someone who started smoking in my teens, I hope it passes. I hate seeing some baby faced kid smoking. Thankfully, it is so uncool to smoke now that few start compared to decades past.

take issue with this (notwithstanding DOD efforts to curtail the habit, there are still a lot of tobacco enthusiasts in uniform--the snuff/chew crew, particularly), as might other 18 year olds who don't smoke but see this as yet another constraint upon their adult-but-not-really liberties. I have no dog in this fight, since no one in my immediate or even extended family smokes, from young to old. I have two friends I can think of, offhand, who smoke, and of the two, one hides the habit.

18 year olds don't vote nowadays, but I remember a time when they voted in massive numbers. They can enter into contracts, so even if they're stupid, they are still signing on the dotted line and are regarded as adults in that aspect.

Be interesting to see where this goes.

I believe it bans porn at any age and it can just put it in the contract no tobacco use. I believe a lot of the medical profession is starting to do this on some level such as no smoking hospital or medical building campuses. Tobacco really is a bad habit. Making someone wait until they are fully out of the peer pressure of high school to start is not a bad idea. (I was originally against smoking bans in restaurants and bars but now see how offensive it could of been for non-smokers. Ideas change and I think upping the limit is a good idea just as getting rid of cigarette vending machines was a good idea.)

I should clarify the powers that be do care if 18 year olds vote (they don't want it) so you will not see e-voting anytime in the near or even couple decade future. The government wants to do everything else paperless (getting forms such as IRS), direct deposit of paychecks and benefits, DMV etc. But you won't see e-voting anytime soon because too many young people might actually vote.

Smoking hasn't been allowed in military hospitals for over twenty years, and seagoing vessels as well--that doesn't mean there aren't the odd die-hards, and, of course, the chewers and sniffers. And those new E-Cigs are a hit with the younger set because, technically, it's not "smoking." The military doesn't "ban porn" per se; if you want to buy it, go right ahead. They won't sell it in base or post exchanges, though. You're free to purchase it elsewhere if you'd like. It's not to be displayed in the workplace, of course--that's the same as most places of employment.

The military isn't in the habit of banning things that are legal. Drugs are a no-no, alcohol is not. Nor is porn, though it won't be sold in family friendly military venues.

The whole purpose of the miltitary is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It's fine to accept some constraints in the interests of good order and discipline, but there's a line, too.

Right now, there are no strains on the recruiting pipeline because we're in the midst of a drawdown, but that won't always be the case, if history is any judge.

So it makes sense to raise the age to 21.

Why not raise the adult age to 25, if the law says you can't drink at 18 but can enlist in the military at that age, and when science suggests the adult brain isn't fully "adult" til 24-25?

than we did a couple hundred years ago, when the age of adulthood was legally set at 21.

I also think that the developing brain should be taken into account in criminal procedures. A person in his early twenties doesn't have the same ability to predict and control his actions than he would at 25 or older.

I hope the governor vetoes this bad idea.

This and the drinking age send the wrong message about adulthood. You can be an adult at 18, subject to all laws and contracts, but can't buy cigs or beer. Either you are an adult with all the responsibilities, or you are not. Pick one.

Ludicrous.

There is absolutely NO benefit to smoking cigarettes. If this keeps people from taking up the habit for a few more years, maybe, just maybe, they won't pick it up at all.

I see a woman smoking, I won't ask her out. That's a direct benefit to the smoker.

Why do you presume to think that you should "keep" me from smoking?

They think they should be able to control what you do with your body, no different than anti abortion protesters.

Silent response is eerie.

Wanting that sort of control over another person is creepy behavior.

I don't care what people do, but I do support regulations that make sense. I started smoking when I was 15 and continued for 30 years. If someone wants to smoke, they will find a way. Raising the age to 21 just makes sense given the product we are talking about. 100% harm, 0% benefit.

People can go to war and not smoke or drink?

Fuck that.

on fucking also...lol

Funny seeing so called "liberals" telling adults what they can and cannot do with a legal product.

There's always others ways to get em. I predict it won't affect youth smoking much. And when I joined the Army at 18 i was able to fire an M16 and go to war. Yet now I wouldn't be able to buy a pack? That's silly. I wonder if that law applies to the PX.

In the future, when there are less deaths due to smoking, then people will ask why this wasn’t done sooner.

One could only guess how many lives that would save

It's difficult and often self-defeating when groups or even tyrants try to legislate morality, common sense or unselfishness.

Often they are left in a dust-pit of things that didn't work

It's also the easiest to prevent. Laws that go after young smokers are good, IMHO.

Laws that criminalize youngsters or laws that impinge upon those industries who capitalize on their naivety.

TO smoke whether YOU OK it or NOT.

I don't NEED to smoke, but I do it when I drink wine...How's that.
Now wine is dangerous...ha

second-hand experiences becoming too intense to tolerate. For example... I used to hang out with my friends in bars where indoor smoking was common. We often smoked together in an effort to combat the intense smoke all around us. Suddenly, indoor smoking in bars and restaurants became illegal. The number of smokers plummeted after a short time, me included. I still have a few friends who smoke, into their late 40s. But I digress.

My point being: Pushing tobacco out of our culture seems to be a good thing as we progress. The stench of the smoke is intolerable to most ex-smokers and most non-smokers. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who would suggest that the smell of second-hand smoke is pleasing. Nor interesting, and at this point, most would describe it as intolerable. And don't get me started on the health issues.

Phase smoking out over time.