Okay, this is not one of the suggested topics of this thread, but the subject is pretty controversial. This afternoon, I was waiting for the bus when a group of teenagers asked me for a cigarette. My first instinct was to say 'no'. But on the other hand, I was having a smoke myself. I thought it'd be hypocritical not to give them one while I was enjoying mine. Plus, they were about 16-17 years old. I would presume that at that age, you can make your own decisions about what's good or what's bad for you. Now, to be clear, I didn't give them a cigarette. But I'm feeling like a real hypocrit. I started smoking when I was 16 (you know, peer pressure and all ). What gives me the right to deny them a smoke? They'll get it somewhere else anyway, so why bother saying no? I've been walking around with this question all day. Would you have given them one? Why (not)?
i probably would. in the uk recently the legal age for buying smokes was raised to 18, to be level with drinking. this really bothers me - you're considered old enough to have sex at 16, so why not drink or smoke? the really bizarre one is that you can drive at 17. how can you be considered mature enough to handle a two ton weapon with vast potential for damaging others, but not things that really only damage yourself? (of course that excludes the indirect damage smoking/drinking does to others but you get the point). i'd give them a cig just to piss our nanny government off i think! and i've always been a labour voter, it makes me really sad they've done this (along with other things). as the song says "change your name to new, forget the f**king labour". i started smoking at 15, i don't think peer pressure had much to do with it really, for me it was always about it being a pretty sure fire way to damage myself (especially as i had heart surgery etc). ok so at 15 i might have been too immature to make such a decision but 18 years later i stand by it and i'm still smoking for pretty much the same reasons. obviously i'm aware this sounds somewhat emo but my self destructive streak is pretty strong, so i'll cope. so yeah, digressions aside(!!), i almost certainly would've let them have a ciggie, unless either (1) they looked much younger, say 12-13, or (2) i only had a couple left. have to think of myself first!
Most of my friends started to smoke in age 13-14 (7th grade does that to you ) and I never felt left out even I didn't smoke and I've never even tasted. Of course everytime when they whined about money and so on I said well you have money to buy ciggys and then they got mad and told me how hard it is to quit :lol: Anyways, to your question... IF I smoked... I guess why not if they are 17 or so (here you can buy ciggys at age of 18, buy alcohol under 22% when you are 18 and get driving license when you are 18 and of course the most important thing - you can vote ) The ciggybuying age was raised some 15 yrs ago from 16 to 18. It's the same thing when your friends were few weeks away turning 18 and you were already 18.