Do You Support Raising The Smoking Age To 21 In Montana?

Many anti-tobacco groups across Montana are advocating for both an additional tax on cigarettes as well as raising the legal purchasing age from 18 to 21. A couple of states and many cities across the U.S. have already made the jump from 18-21, but is that the right move?

To me, if we are going to continue to call 18 year old's adults, then we should treat them as such. They can make their own living decisions, vote, purchase a handgun, join the military, etc. I know that many will argue that you have to be 21 to consume alcohol, but that's different in my point of view. Consuming alcohol puts many other lives in jeopardy when bad decisions are made. We've pretty well wrangled the smokers in public so they're essentially inflicting damage upon their own lungs and no one else's.

To be clear, I'm not advocating tobacco use. It's a bad idea. My 9 year old thinks they're disgusting and I hope she always feels that way. I just like to live in a "free" country where we do not tell people what they can and can't do unless it directly hurts another person. I'm not a fan of laws intended to protect us from ourselves.