Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York had to be a big shot, apparently. Today on July 16, he finally signed the bill that raises the age limit for tobacco and vaping products to 21, effective 120 days from today.
When the lights went out on Broadway last Saturday, that was certainly an ominous sign. And lest anyone think there is a consolation prize, Cuomo failed to even get weed legalized last month since he apparently couldn't even muster up the votes in the legislature to pass it.
Many counties and cities in the state, including NYC and now all of its "backyard", already set the tobacco/vape age limit at 21. That of course includes my home county of Westchester, which raised it from 18 to 21 last year, and even Putnam County too.
The only silver lining is that the new age limit of 21, like the old age limit of 18, will only apply to vendors, as it will still not be illegal for "underage" people to possess or consume tobacco or vaping products. But that still does NOT mean we should support it one bit!
With the "bookend" states of California and New York now down, plus several other populous and not-so-populous states, not to mention hundreds of localities across the country, and even our nation's capital, is our movement lost for good? We sure hope not. It looked like the Tobacco 21 movement had stagnated last year, but now with New York, Utah, Virginia, Washington State, Illinois, and Texas next to jump on the bandwagon, and soon the federal government as well, we clearly got way too complacent last year. It certainly does NOT bode well for any near-future attempt to lower the drinking and toking ages to 18!
Hindsight is 2020, both the year and the vision. There is still a slim chance that the America we know and love is not completely lost yet. But that window is closing very, very fast.
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It appears that Governor Cuomo did had to be a big shot, as the song by Billy Joel says. I believe that the window is already closed. I also believe that is unofficial party principle of the Democratic party to support a smoking and vaping age of 21. It would wise to concede this part of the movement. We should instead separate the smoking age from the drinking age in order to try in make gains to lower the drinking age.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to JUUL Labs promoting their advertisement in reducing vaping by young people, one can see lobbying by them as one of their efforts.
DeleteIndeed. The focus should be laser-like on the drinking age specifically, while the powers that be are distracted with tobacco and vaping. We lost the tobacco battle for now, time to regroup and focus on our real raison d'etre: the drinking age.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
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