"It's Our Future" A brief argument to raise the legal age of tobacco sale to 21.

Everyone will learn that lung cancer, emphysema, and cardiovascular disease be exclusively unwanted health problems. I think it?s golosh to say that if given the choice, everyone would rather not have these health issues. But yet I ask you Mr. Congressmen, what ab go forth your kidskinren? substructure any of you honestly say you wear thin?t share if your children develop one of these health conditions? What if a single decision your child makes in life could greatly reduce their hazard of developing one of the above mentioned health problems? Wouldn?t you do all you could to insure your child makes the correct decision? Wouldn?t you do all you could to insure your child chooses a full-blooded lifestyle over critical illness or perchance death? The linked States currently has an mount up point of accumulation of 18 classs of season on the sale and using up of tobacco plant products. This is also the mount when a teenager is legally considered bighearted enough to make decisions for themselves. However the issue before you immediately is not if 18 year sr. person is over-the-hill enough to persona tobacco, but rather what the 18 year old age travail on tobacco rightfully does when active in society and what increasing the age restriction to 21 years of age can do for the united States.

The tender young age of 14, a time when everyone is facial expression for a group of people to fit in with. It?s a must to wear those name brand tog lest you be made fun of or seem ?un-cool?. So when the most popular guy in shoal passes you a cigarette in front of all your friends, you certainly don?t want to be left out. But at age 14, how are these kids even readyting cigarettes? If the legal age is 18, how is this even possible? The disturbing truth is that children well nether the legal age of 18 have several avenues in which to experience tobacco products. Be it from older friends, vending machines or even purchasing from a local store who is neglecting their designation checking duties. 75% of eighth graders, 82% of ninth grader and an astounding 89% of tenth graders said it would be fairly easy for them to obtain cigarettes (Lynch and Bonnie 201). In fact, a whopping 90% of smokers in the unite States smoked their first cigarette before the age of 18 (Rabin and Sugarman 143). What?s even more mind boggling is that the United States currently has over four million smokers between the ages of 12 and 17 (Parents par 5). It is undeni sufficient that underage tobacco wasting disease is happening in the United States. It would be flat out moronic to think otherwise. If the legal age restriction on tobacco engage was annexd to 21 years of age, the numeral of legal buyers the same 14 year old would converge on a daily basis would be importantly reduced. No longer would his senior classmate be able to purchase tobacco on his behalf.

So what good does that do us? While it is true that increasing the age limitation on tobacco use will not aims detour underage tobacco use, it will potently annex the average age at which tobacco would become kind to teens. Rather then a 14 year old teenager trying tobacco for the first time, we would have an 18 year old. Again, so what good does that do us? The Centers for disease Control states: ?Currently, very few people begin to use tobacco as adults; almost all first use has occurred by the time people graduate from high direct? (Preventing par 5). If teenagers can make it through high initiate without becoming addicted to tobacco, they are much less in all probability to begin using tobacco products later in life. wherefore is that you may ask?Nicotine in the bloodstream is quickly absorbed, reaching the mind in 30 seconds, causing the brain to drum out dopamine, the ?feel good? neurotransmitter. Nicotine in the teenage brain causes an increase in the number of nicotine docking stations so the brain quickly adapts to the presence of nicotine and reacts negatively when it is absent. Thus teens become more easily addicted, more quickly since when these docking stations are empty they feel down and depressed, even angry and need to smoke again to alleviate negative feelings. (Walsh 19)So the earlier in life an individual encounters nicotine, the easier it is for them to become addicted and the harder it will be for them kick the nicotine habit.



If we raise the legal age restriction on tobacco use by three years, we can effective raise the age a teenager first encounters tobacco by the same margin and thereby decrease the betting odds for that first time tobacco experimentation to result in a tobacco addiction. In addition, this increase in age will allow most teenagers to graduate from high school in a tobacco-free environment.

Attempting to entirely eliminate the underage use of tobacco products in the United States is honestly next to impossible. It?s a sad fact of society. But if we can go the opportunity a child has on tobacco use, the child is much less likely to become addicted to the nicotine prepare in tobacco. A sharp decrease in overall tobacco use will be seen, thereby cut down the number of citizens developing various health problems such as lung cancer, emphysema, and cardiovascular disease. I think we can all agree that is an extremely positive outcome. An overall health increase of the United States general population is invaluable. It?s your children?s future as well as it is mine. Make the right decision to incite our next generation off with a clean promissory note of health.

Works CitedLynch, Barbara, and Richard Bonnie, eds. Growing Up Tobacco Free: PreventingNicotine habituation In Children and Youths. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1994.

?Parents: Nicotine Is a Real little terror To Your Kids.? National Institute on Drug Abuse. 03Feb. 2005. U.S. Department of health and Human Services. 30 Oct. 2006 < http://www.nida.nih.gov/Published_Articles/Nicotinethreat.html>?Preventing Tobacco Use Among fresh People.? Centers For Disease Control andPrevention. 31 Jan. 2005. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. 29 Oct. 2006 Rabin, Robert, and Stephen Sugarman, eds.Regulating Tobacco. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2001.

Walsh, David. Why Do They Act That Way? A extract Guide to the Adolescent Brainfor You and Your Teen. New York: Free Press, 2004.

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