Raising the Age
The complex question that was asked in the post was, “What are the consequences the city of New York will face by raising the smoking age to twenty-one?” This paper will discuss the multifaceted controversial subject facing the New York City residents; those ages eighteen through twenty-one and many merchants around the city. Multiple opinions show why this bill is a very good decision when looking at the health at these eighteen to twenty-one year olds in addition to the city’s youth. When another argument shows the financial hardships going to be felt because this bill passed legislation. Then, there are those making claims about someone that is adult enough to go to war for our country should be adult enough to smoke.
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"I'm going to lose a lot of business," deli owner Wadah Arbuya told CBS New York. "I'm going to get hurt big time. Half my sales of cigarettes is between 18 and 21." If this legislation is making a large impression on a deli owner, it will substantially impact those owners of smoke shops, selling predominately all tobacco products.
The city is going to see a significant drop in revenue, with this bill. New York City has the highest cigarette tax rate in the United States with the minimum price for per pack of cigarettes in the city is $10.50. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, illustrate that of the minimum amount, $1.50 of that goes to the city of New York and $4.35 is taxed by the state of New York. It is clear these administrations will see a hindrance with the deficiency of these sales of raising the age.
The last argument of the smoking age in New York City can be seen by those who are questioning those that say eighteen through twenty years olds are incapable of making decision. (CBS New York and Associated Press). "The laws seem so inconsistent. At the age of 18, a person can move out of their parents' home, vote, get tattoos and piercings and die for their country," says Ashley Anderson, a senior at Baruch College in New York City. "If New York City feels that 18-year-olds aren't mature enough to make smart decisions concerning their health, then why are they mature enough to make those other decisions?"
Over the last few decades, tobacco and nicotine prevention efforts have risen to an all time high. Prevention efforts focus on education to the public of the negative effects on one’s health when using tobacco and nicotine products, as well as with pleas to healthcare policymakers to increase restrictions on product manufacturing and sales. One policy effort growing in popularity in the United States is called Tobacco 21, which proposes to raise the legal age of purchase for consumers of tobacco and nicotine products to 21 years of age (Farber, Pakhale, & Neptune, 2016). Farber, Pakhale, and Neptune (2016) state that 90% of tobacco and nicotine users begin smoking before the age of 18, with 99% of users starting before the age of 26. Lower smoking cessation rates are associated with earlier ages of initiation and the tobacco industry is known to target youth in advertisement of these products lending to the early age of initiation. The tobacco industry themselves admit that increasing the age allowed for purchase to exclude youth would substantially effect their sales. Tobacco 21 laws also deter adolescents from gaining tobacco or nicotine products from friends 18 to 21 years of age, which is the most likely age group to supply younger teens. With this knowledge, placing tighter restrictions on consumers younger than 21 years of age, using the Tobacco 21 policy, may deter tobacco and nicotine initiation in hopes to prevent individual use at all in the future (Farber
The article gives information about the nationwide regulation restricting nicotine cigarettes in the U.S in terms of their promising outcomes such as reducing smoking among the youth and several trends of using tobacco-related products in a 10-year period. Furthermore, the authors also point put some possible challenges associated with cigarette withdrawal.
In the article it explain how raising taxes on cigarettes will benefits teens in the future: “Studies indicate that 90 percent of smokers start as teens. An estimated 17,000 California kids get hooked on smoking and one-third of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related illness. In every other state that has raised the tobacco tax, smoking rates have gone down among teens” (Western Dental Joins California Health Leaders Supporting Proposition 56). Most people would agree that habits are formed at young age, and we all know that bad habits are hard to quit, specially those that creates addiction such as cigarettes. If the price of cigarettes is raise, teens will not be able to afford them since teens are limited in money which will prevent them from creating that addiction. Also, we will be able to have more control over impulsive teenagers, is not that we are coddling them but rather guide them to do what is right for them and break the cycle of smokers. Furthermore,
If 90% of United States smokers could have another chance to redo it, they reported that they would not even have their first puff that initiated their tobacco addiction (Winickoff, Gottlieb, and Mello 2014). The Tobacco 21 bill is a fairly new legislation and already it has shown a decline in underage smokers as a result of its implementation. The results of the survey presented that the public opinion was largely accepting and supportive of the bill. The main argument against the bill is the harm that will come to retailers of tobacco products. Correspondingly, the argument is proven inaccurate and in favor of the bill. The past has shown the improved outcome of the country from the raise in the minimum alcohol age, and researchers regard
Jim Anthony raises the question where are the affected cases more likely to be found with respect to characteristics, conditions, and processes of person, place and time? In regard to location, these aspects will be covered predominantly at the state level, given the pertinent tobacco tax policy discussions. However, we will also explore what is occurring at the local and regional level.
The vulnerable population that I observed during my survey are the teenagers and young adult smokers. As I was driving along Flatbush avenue and the surrounding community one evening, I observed a bunch of young male adults gathered on the street, appeared to be clean and nicely dressed. They were talking loud, drinking alcohol and smoking weed or cigarettes. You would have thought that they were fighting with each other, but much do I know that this was their normal way of communicating at social gatherings. What baffled me the most was that there were children and females, both young and older adults as well standing in the same spot inhaling the cigarette smoke. It seems like people are ignorant that second hand cigarette smoking is more hazardous to non-smokers than it is to smokers, especially to children. It could cause lung cancer, heart problems and other debilitating diseases.
In the past few years, the bans on smoking cigarettes in public areas has become a huge controversy in America as bans on smoking have become more strict nationwide. In an editorial featured in the New York Times by Sue Ogrocki titled They’re Coming For Your Cigarettes. But That’s O.K., Ogrocki argues why bans on smoking cigarettes in one’s own home is necessary and beneficial for everyone else. Her editorial is in support for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, whom is pushing to ban cigarette smoking in an estimated one million public housing units across America, including townhouses and apartments. Ogrocki’s argument contained many flaws, as she failed to provide facts and statistics to support her statements, and was too general
When we come to the reality and try to realize how many 18 years old are really responsible for what they are doing, it is obvious to tell they are not mature enough to separate the good from the bad because they can easily be affected by peer pressure at this age. The majority of smokers regret smoking because they started doing it when they were not responsible enough for what they were doing. If people accept any 18 years old smoker as responsible and is able to decide if the cigarette is good or not, why do we find them regretting after 5 years or more? If we increase the minimum age of smoking cigarette to 21, people at least might know what they are doing because they are mature enough to decide what to do for the rest of their life; 3 years difference between 18 and 21 is a lot to learn from life. As a result we might decrease the number of new smokers because they will have full potential to decide what to do at this age than 18 years old.
Healthy People 2020 is a movement in America which was started in 1979 and provides 10 year national objectives based on science for promoting health and preventing diseases. It sets and monitors health objectives and tries to influence individuals to make informed health decisions. With such kind of objectives, smoking becomes a big health concern to Healthy People 2020. Smoking affects national health and causes health disparities. Smoking has been associated with a number of health complications such as cancer and heart diseases. Under Healthy People 2010 issues such as smoking during pregnancy and cigarette smoking cessation were to be addressed.
Raising taxes on tobacco products and implementing smoking cessation legislations can minimize the prevalence of smoking up to 30 percent to 80 percent over a 50-year period (Ekpu & Brown 2015).In 2009, NBC news stated that Kansas, one of the states, considering banning smoking at enclosed areas showed that if they banned smoking in restaurants, the state was going to save 20 million dollars in healthcare costs (Associated Health, 2009). West Virginia state implemented smoke-free laws and had an increase of almost 1 percent in restaurant employment (“Smoke Free Laws do not Harm Business,” 2017). Restaurant workers were more comfortable coming in to work knowing they would be breathing in fresh air. Although in Tennessee, percentage of adults who smoked in 2011 increased from 23 percent to 24.3 percent in 2015 (Fletcher, 2016). This increment was not that significant considering the fact that it was over a period of just 4 years. The annual health care cost in Tennessee directly to smoking increased from $2.16 billion in 2004 to $2.67 billion in 2017(“The Toll of Tobacco in Tennessee”, n.d.).
Public health departments and special interest health organizations strongly support policies of increasing the tobacco purchasing age to 21. Organizations like American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids had provided many researches and studies to support the policy. People from age 18 to 21 and parents had mixed opinions. The youth smokers were most likely to oppose this policy. Another large opponents was the tobacco industry, as increasing the tobacco
Ouellette's recognizing the dire and effects of smoking and wanting to prevent them illustrates the massive leap in science. Ouellette's desire to change the age will not only help adolescents physically but mentally. There has been a drastic change in the way the media presents smoking. Nowadays there are a lot of anti-smoking ads. However, teenagers will still smoke regular cigarettes or use e-cigarettes since they are not like "real" and assume they offer no negative effects. I find smoking unappealing, but I know others my age will still be tempted to try. I don't know if raising the purchase age will keep those who are determined to smoke from doing so, but the change will make it more difficult. I think a person dying from smoking is a needless expense, so I advocate Ouellette's
Shockingly, there are 3.5 million middle and high school students smoking cigarettes in the U.S. (Leatherdale & Vu, 2011). As we all know, smoking is a horrible habit which affects many of the body’s systems such as the circulatory and immune systems. Underage smoking is an even more serious problem as it affects teenagers’ health and influences more young people to smoke, stopping it is possible with a good tracking system (Qi, 2015).
These teens may think that smoking shows that they are old enough to make their own decisions.
Several people think if smoking is legal and if the smokers are of age then they should be allowed to smoke. They also think It is not the job of the government to tell anyone what to decide to do with their life and not for them to command smokers to stop. They think that banning smoking in public would applaud people to smoke more in their houses, this will hurt other people in their house, especially their kids. It would also make bars, pubs and clubs go out of business. In an article by Joseph Bast called “Smoking Should Not Be Banned in Public Places”, Joseph Bast altercate that "people are free to do things both great and foolish so long as they do not conflict with an equal right held by others." This combines smoking. Considering scientific studies have not definitively found the danger of secondhand smoke, smoking bans should not be established in law, he says. There is documentation that less people are smoking, and he believes that each person should have the freedoms to do anything they want. Joseph Bast is president and CEO of the Heartland Institute, a nonprofit research and educational organization that promotes free market solutions to social and economic problems.