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Why 21? Why not outlaw smoking? Twenty-one serves no purpose. We have an adult cut-off age, 18. You can go to war, you can vote, you cannot enter into a contract and if you commit a crime you are an adult. Drinking liquor is an exception (one I disagree with - but that's not the point). The point is, we have an age at which we say - TaDa! you are capable of making your own decisions.
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Why would we treat smoking differently? Because it is addictive and leads (after a long time) to death? By that measure, sugary cereals shouldn't be available to children.
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There are a lot of bad things that people have the right to choose to participate in or not. And the public bears the cost of mis-use of those things; including driving recklessly (too fast, pre-occupied, etc), eating fattening foods, smoking, skateboarding, roller skating, swimming, hiking in the woods if one is allergic to beestings. But you shouldn't force decisions on people. "You can't smoke until 21!"
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Why 21? (Real Reason - FYI - because the bill's author's mother starting smoking at 16 and regretted it - then died of lung cancer in her 60's - which is a long time to "directly" kill someone, but whatever.) Given the "logic" here, why not 25? Why not 30? As our estate planner said, "If you are setting up a trust, make it available when they are 30. Let them get one marriage under their belt."
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Outlaw large sodas? Maybe we should outlaw bicycles. My guess is that we would save large some number of lives if we required all "bi"cycles to be "tri" cycles.
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And why have lights turn green quickly. We could save a lot of lives if we changed the reds to green with a random 1 - 10 second number generator. If we delayed them all by 5 seconds, some would jump the light, but a random number generator and a red-light cam and we could save scores of lives.
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Why not hire a state employee to go with you to the grocery store and nag you every time you made a bad choice, "Really Scott? A moment on the lips and lifetime on the hips! Two ply? Can't you really help the environment with single ply? Why is your ass so special? Another orange? Would a spring of brocoli now and then kill you?"*
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Stupid.
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*ps - I totally want to apply for that job.