Smoking and Drinking Ages - Pointless?

[ShastaTwist]

Originally Posted by Relambrien

Personally, I believe that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 and the smoking age should remain where it is. If I'm not mistaken--and please, someone correct me if I am--someone smoking an "average" amount per day does more damage to their body than someone drinking an "average" amount per day. Why then, should drinking require a higher age than the more-damaging act of smoking? By 18, I believe people can make their own decisions regarding alcohol.

Wrong. Did you know that drinking/being an alcoholic can create a certain form of amnesia? Alcohol also ruins your liver if you drink too much for too long. Cigarettes don't really put you at risk of killing someone like drinking and then driving do. Neither one is more damaging than the other. Cigarettes create all sorts of health risks but so does alcoholism and they both have negative effects on people around you.

I think that the legal ages are set because, at the age of fourteen, you haven't experienced everything about smoking there is to know and those extra four years are set in the hopes that you'll change your mind.

Maybe I'm taking this to an entirely different level by bringing alcoholism into the mix, but it's the only thing I can really relate it to through personal experience.