We cannot allow the smoking age to go up to 21! It’s an assault on the right of 18-20 year olds to decide what to do with their own bodies! Write to your municipal, county, state, and federal representatives about this!
From age 14-17 I chose all of my friends based on whether or not they were 18, making them old enough to by me cigarettes. Don’t let those crooks at the capital ruin it for the current generations.
However, the “forbidden fruit” effect means that the more people you forbid from doing something, the more of those people do it. More people stop drinking on their 21st birthday than start. The drinking age is 21 because of drunk driving, and there’s no such thing as smoked driving. Also of interest is that the states where the smoking age is 19 still want to raise it to 21. Did you have any 19-year-old or 20-year-old friends?
Somewhat related is that when I was 14-17, my parents forbade me from having any friends so I immersed myslef in the Star Wars universe to give myself hope. The destruction of the Sith at the end of ROTJ to me symbolized the possibility that I would one day break free from my parents and have friends, so I became passionate about the Sith never returning, hence Frink’s grudge against me.