When East Carolina University researchers lobbied to increase the age for tobacco purchases last June, we knew they weren’t just blowing smoke.
The proposal made in conjunction with the release of a nationwide survey has resurfaced nine months later in the form of House Bill 435, which would change the age limit for the purchase of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-Pitt, introduced the legislation last Wednesday. A urologic surgeon, Murphy said his medical training and experience as a physician has shown him the dangers of tobacco use firsthand. While we don’t fault the good doctor for discouraging young adults from starting a smoking habit, using the force of law to take away their choices is a bridge too far.
We had a feeling that a questionable study conducted by ECU and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill academics would pave the way for a movement to change the law. The survey probed only public opinion and didn’t show evidence that making smokers and vapers wait three years to get their legal fix would have a positive influence on public health.
ECU and UNC found that 73.1 percent of survey respondents in the Southeast supported changing the age limit to 21. Researchers could barely contain their excitement and promoted the policy shift in a press release and media interviews.
The likelihood of confirmation bias makes that study highly suspect. Should we really be all that surprised the antismoking activists who carefully crafted the questions happened to find exactly what they were looking for?
HB 435 offers North Carolina’s young adults a full puff of paternalism. They may be old enough to vote, buy land, execute contracts and enlist in the military, but Murphy wants to infantilize them. Eighteen, 19 and 20-year-olds, he thinks, simply can’t be trusted to make informed choices about tobacco and e-cigarettes.
Well, whose fault is that? If teenagers aren’t being taught the consequences of tobacco and nicotine in their public school health classes, legislators like Murphy could surely remedy that in an education bill.
We favor a uniform age of majority over a piecemeal approach. Doling out rights and responsibilities in a series of stages denies young adults full participation in society. Sales restrictions for those over 18 and under 21 puts government in a parental role, which we find untenable.
This same brand of fuzzy-headed “it’s for their own good” thinking leads to limits on soda bottle sizes, junk-food taxes and other big-government incursions into private life designed to nudge free American adults toward making politically correct decisions. It’s smug nanny-state superiority that shows profound disrespect for citizens and voters.
Most 18-year-olds are smart enough to know cigarettes come with considerable health risks. When they choose to buy a pack of smokes, they are adults taking calculated risks with their own bodies, not helpless rubes who need helicopter parents in Raleigh to swoop in and protect them from themselves.
If HB 435 passes, we hope 18, 19 and 20-year-olds exercise their right as voting-age citizens to cut bill sponsors’ tenure in the General Assembly short. That will teach them to underestimate young adults.
— The Wilson Times