age 21

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in retired LTC.

Official law takes effect today for Sate of NJ. It enforces the age of 21 for smoking (and includes those vaping cigs). It was age 19. New Jersey joins Cali, Hawaii and Maine for age 21 now.

A wise instructor in my BSN program often commented re the flurry of laws that were always seeming to come out every week or so. Laws all seemed to have the right intentions.

But ...

Her position was "who will enforce" or "how will it be enforced"????

What good is a law if it's basically on paper and NOT enforced? Didn't some municipality just enact a law to prohibit TEXTING WHILE WALKING???? Hey! NO TEXTING WHILE DRIVING has been in effect for a while. And we all know how well that works!

Well, so much for the age 21 Cig Law.

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How will it be enforced? How does the drinking age or current smoking age get enforced?

I know people who have been ticketed for texting and driving.

Usually with laws like the above the real pressure is put on vendors not to sell to prohibited parties and companies that make the products not to market to them.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I just feel sorry for the young people who are already hooked. My grandson-in-law who is 19 really enjoys smoking/vaping and he is going to be in a world of hurt unless he can find someone to buy him tobacco. I won't do it because it's illegal and because I don't want ANYBODY to smoke, but that horse is already out of the gate where he's concerned. I'm sure he'll find a way to procure cigarettes and vape juice, though...kids are pretty crafty when it comes to getting forbidden substances.

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Who and how it will be enforced are excellent questions. Realistically it won't be. I am to lazy to look up statistics but I think fewer Americans are smoking and I assume the flurry of laws has some effect.

In my area most apartments and rentals are non smoking. Hotels, motels, school campuses, work places, etc., are non smoking. Open spaces, beaches, parks, are non smoking. I don't want the police or park rangers patrolling open spaces for or harassing smokers, but if these restrictions and raising the legal age influence one young person that smoking is just not worth it that is one life "saved".

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Thank y'all for the comments. For those 'law breakers' who have been nabbed for some infraction (myself included for my no seatbelt drive one afternoon), I believe those citations will be so 'small potatoes' to really have no impact on the issue at large'

So we're back to who/how to enforce? Pressure will be rightfully applied to vendors and manufacturers, but the biggest offender is still the smoker, driver or texter.

Need to be honest now - how many of us have texted/cell phoned while driving and were lucky? Not to have caused any accident or to have been caught.

As commented, if any law does have the effect to deter/inhibit even a few folk from smoking or drinking or texting, then that is good. I won't argue that.

It's just not enough.

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