Quote:
Originally Posted by mtdjed
All that is true, but the topic was a government banning sales to certain persons based upon an arbitrary age discrimination beyond youth. Ban it on public streets, parks, beaches etc. Ban selling it in all stores in your jurisdiction. You might not get reelected, but at least the restriction could be understood and not discriminate against a class of people.
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Basically - they're banning the purchase of cigarettes, but grandfathering in most people who've been smoking legally up until that point. I get the logic behind it.
There are still dry towns in several states, where alcohol is not allowed to be sold. No liquor stores, no beer, no bars, no wine at restaurants.
I don't see any problem with a town that wants to gradually eliminate smoking. No one has a constitutional right to smoke. "Freedom to inhale poisonous fumes and exhale them into public air" is not a right, or even a privilege. It's more of an oversight. Kudos to the town in MA for starting the process of correcting that oversight.
There was already a minimum age (21) to buy tobacco in MA, they've just raised the age, and capped it at a specific birth year.