» Items that are illegal to people under 18/21

Items such as alcohol and cigarettes are illegal to people under 18 or 21(as many supermartkets are doing in england). Do you think that the reaon for it being illegal to 18 or unders is fair or unfair? If unfair, why?

My opinion:

Coming once I've heard your say.

They only make them illegal to people under the age of 18/21 because really people are too young to decide of they want to ruin their lives with these illegal-under-a-certain-age products.

But doing stuff like raising the driving age from 17 to 18 is dumb. You're just as dumb and teanager-y and prone to do stupid things at 18 as you are 17.

Drinking: 15 year olds do it here anyway. They just can't buy it.
Cigarettes: They buy 'em off the older kids.
Driving: Get your license here at 16. It's not too bad. Don't get the full one until you're 19 providing you don't f*** up somehow.

Oh, and the legal age here is 19.

here in the US, you can get your liscense at 16. I think the drinkingage is perfectly fair. A desperate kid can still get it, but most teenagers don't drink or do drugs. I think 18 is the cigarette age. I think cigarettes should be illegal, and the government would if so many people weren't addicted.

There are kids standing around school smoking crack and cigarettes anyway and no one does anything about it. But if it was suddenly legal, kids would feel encouraged to do it.

You are a sheltered, sheltered child.
The minority are the ones who don't.

l! Alcohol negative effects on still developing brains

2! All cigarettes should be illegal. If people try to sell food that gives you cancer they get sued or arrested, why not cigarettes?

I dont agree with that, because some it is just that you want to be rebellieous, like if were suddenlly allowed to I probally wouldn't want to...

Rules? I’ll show you rules...

The ad below for an apartment for rent was posted on Craigslist [like an online classifieds] in
“Uncategorized” 2008 (It starts out just fine, but keep reading...)

---------------------------------------------------------

All the tenants I interview aren’t good enough (Broadway and Commercial)

I am a born again Christian. Why is this a problem for people????! I have a house that’s MINE and I PAID FOR IT. I also have a basement apartment for rent. It’s a great space for I’m charging very little for it, $480 monthly, for the right tenant. I know it’s ILLEGAL to require a Christian in the apartment, against the human rights. That’s why I NEVER put this in my ad. Why then does it keep getting taken down?

HERE IS THE AD I POSTED, AND THE AD THAT KEEPS GETTING REMOVED:

Available Immediately – Broadway and Commercial – Showing Saturday and Sunday – Email for directions and additional information.

What kind of apartment is it?
> One bedroom basement apartment with separate entrance
> Tastefully decorated with modern décor
> Approximately 650 square feet
> There is even a window! Security bars installed for your safety and to prevent unauthorized
activity
> Closed circuit camera installed for security and safety. One in your suite, one at the entrance, and one
in the exercise yard

Rent:
> $480.00 per month
> First month’s rent + ½ month security deposit due at move in
> Small pet allowed with approval and payment of additional ½ month pet damage deposit
> One year lease permitted, option to renew lease at end of the term with no increase in rent
> LANDLORD’S SPECIAL! Move in before January 1st and don’t pay for the remainder of
December! That’s significant savings.

Included in the rent:
> Electricity
> Heat – Maintained at 21 degrees with lock box to prevent unauthorized tampering. Additional heating
available for $20.00 per extra degree of heating per month. You may not use your oven to heat the
apartment. If you do, you will be fined $50.00 per occurrence.
> Air conditioning – Maintained at 25 degrees during the summer with lock box to prevent extra
cooling from being dispensed. Additional cooling for sale for $20.00 per degree of cooling requested
per month.
> 25″ Zenith color television set with basic cable service - INCLUDED IN RENT!
> Wireless Internet (with content filter applied to block forbidden/immoral websites)
INCLUDED IN RENT!
> Provision of coin laundry services - You will have your own personal coin laundry washer and dryer machines. Washers and dryers are paid using a token system. Tokens can be purchased through the landlord. Washer tokens cost $4.15 each and dryer tokens cost $3.60 each. You are not allowed to use foreign currency or slugs in the washer and dryer. Violators will be fined $100.00 per infraction.

About us: (Landlords)
> We are conservative, bible believing, God-fearing, born again, evangelical Christians.
> We interpret the bible literally in every way possible.
> We live a strict moral code and observe God’s laws in our everyday life.
> My wife stays at home and teaches our home-schooled children.
> I work as a pastor at a local congregation and am active in the faith community.

About you: (Tenant)
> You are employed
> You do not participate in lascivious deviant sexual behavior
> You do not choose alternative lifestyles as your lifestyle
> You do not have any criminal history
> You must have excellent character references
> You do not smoke, drink or take drugs. Mandatory drug screening required.

Additional Rules/Conditions:

> CLEANLINESS: You are responsible for the cleanliness and orderliness of
your apartment. Beds are to be made before leaving your suite, countertops must be wiped down, and
you must remove all trash. Upon inspection, if the tenant’s basement suite is not clean, the cost of
cleaning services plus a fine of $100.00 will be levied.

> LIGHTS: The lights in your basement suite and in the day room are not to be tampered with. If a
light needs repair, report the condition to the Landlord.

> WAKE-UP: Wake up will be at 5:30am each morning. All ceiling lights in the suite will be turned on
automatically.
> LIGHTS OUT: Ceiling lights in the suite will be turned off at 11:30pm.

> CONTRABAND: The following items are considered contraband – alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco,
weapons, lock picking equipment. If any contraband is discovered to be in your possession, you will
be subject to a minimum $1,000.00 fine. In addition, your items will be confiscated permanently.
Second offense – you will be evicted without notice. A bailiff will escort you and your belongings off
the premises. Your security deposit will not be returned.

>SMOKING: The basement suite is non-smoking. Anyone in possession of tobacco products of any
kind or any lighter or matches, will have their contraband items confiscated and will be fined
$100.00.

> INSPECTIONS: The Landlord will conduct unannounced inspections to ensure that these rules and
regulations are being followed.

> VISITATION: Visitation periods will be on Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. All
visitors and their vehicles are subject to search while on landlord property. Refusal to allow a search
can result in their being barred from all future visitation privileges. All visitors must sign the Visitor’s
Log. Unauthorized visitors will be escorted from the property, and the tenant will be fined $250.00.

> I.D. BRACELETS: Each tenant will be issued an I.D. bracelet with his/her photograph. It must be
worn at all times. If you lose your I.D. bracelet or it is broken, you will be required to purchase a new
one at the nominal cost of $5.00.

> EXERCISE YARD: The tenant will have access to the exercise yard in the area to the back of the
property for 2 hours per day from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The tenant is not allowed to bring any
personal property to the exercise yard. Once the tenant leaves the exercise yard on a
particular day, he or she may not return. No boisterous behavior is allowed in the exercise yard. There
is no smoking allowed in the exercise yard. Minimum fine for exercise yard infractions is $50.00

Wow. I would never rent from that guy.
If I was a smoker, I'd want to be able to keep my smokes in my house.

Jeez, that´s a long ad.

Anywho, I agree with you lot, mainly because you have very good points. Secondly, because soking and drinking acohol can ruin your life, therefore you have to make the choice if you want to ruin your own life.

Well, you wont be catching me renting that room.

The thing is, making things illegal makes them TABOO. That means lots of young people will want to try them, because they are risky and possibly dangerous.

Let's take The Netherlands for example. There, cannabis is perfectly legal. And very few Dutch go out and get absolutely plastered every night. Very few. It's the TOURISTS who get so high that they can't walk, because they would not be able to take cannibis at home.

If you lived in a country where you could not smoke, and you had to quit, then if you went to a country where smoking was legal, you'd smoke a hundred a day. But if you were allowed to smoke at home, you'd smoke, but you'd smoke at a slower pace, you'd leave a longer stub, you'd spend less actual time smoking, because you are free to do so as and when you please (within reason).

As for age restrictions on such things, these are generally so that people can make up their minds for themselves when they are mature enough to do so, and so they don't do any extra damage on top of what these things may already do to you.

And as for smoking, some of the oldest people in the world have smoked all their lives.

Either way, the people who want it, under-aged or not, will still get it.

Thank you very much!

There is a debate among psychologists from time to time, about whether the kind of people we turn out to be, is the result of genetics, or upbringing.

Some will say that it’s definitely genetics - the predispositions you’ve inherited from your parents.

Some say that it’s totally the environment you were raised in - you mimic the behavior you’re taught.

Some say it’s a combination of the two.

I’m sure there’s examples of each of those, but my own opinion - being a parent - is that it’s just wrong not to raise your child in an environment of guidelines, rules and limitations.

In fact, to not have rules would be irresponsible.

But sometimes the rules we have as parents are learned by us in the very culture we live in.

For example, in North America back in the early 1900’s, it was primarily the men who smoked and drank - only the very loose women (or prostitutes) smoked.

There is a scene in a movie called “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart, where George Bailey (Stewart) ends up in this nightclub.

The Nightclub was actually a respectable little restaurant kind of place earlier in the movie. But during the movie, George Bailey wishes “He’d never been born”, and we see later in the movie that the entire town has gone down the tubes (because of the lack of his influence in the town - because he’d never been born!), and then we see the same respectable little restaurant has now become a disgusting, seedy little nightclub.

In the movie (this is the part I was getting to) we see George Baily walk into the nightclub, but up at the bar there are some women sitting at the bar - smoking and drinking.

Most people miss the significance of this in the movie - the producer of the movie (Frank Capra) did that as an additional technique to highlight the towns debauchery. In other words, what the movie audience was supposed to do (and what they did back when the movie was released), was say, “Wow! Look at how bad that town became because George Bailey wasn’t there to keep it good! There are women smoking, and everything! Wow, that’s bad!”

Here is the video clip (I couldn’t find a shorter one) and the scene in question starts at about the 7min. 40sec. spot.

But look at our culture now? Hollywood (a thorn in my Christian side) along with advertisers, has made smoking acceptable, through glorification in movies (the numerous smoking scenes that represent a “positive” image), and also through advertising (which obviously is supposed to make something look good - how else would you sell it?).

Here are two commercials; the first one is about smoking, but the second one is simply a women’s “make-up” commercial - the significant thing with that one, is that they put something radioactive on the skin of the actress, to demonstrate a feature of their product. (Think about it - do you want something radioactive on your face?)

Send for your free Atomic Test Booklet today!

I still think there something wrong with being able to sell an addictive product that causes cancer. Really!

Or, Hawkes, maybe I just live in a nice town?

Illegal makes it taboo, and legal makes it advertised and sold at Wal-Mart.

Anyway. Not having rules is just plain irrepsonsible.

No, I'm pretty sure you don't get out much.
Majority of teenagers party with the drugs and alcohol. Especially around 15+.

So this debate is on whether I get out enough or whether smoking's age limit should be abolished?

It's wavering between both of them.
I think more people are concerned about making marijuana legal than smoking age limits. Or rather, keeping marijuana illegal.

do what France did with marijuana. make it legal to grow/own but illegal to sell. or tax heavily the people who do sell it.

if people can legally own the marijuana plant then who is going to buy it from drug dealers?

also that room ad Forest posted earlier sounds more like a prison then an apartment.

That's like the Magic Mushrooms thing. They're legal to grow but illegal to pick or something like that.

The government could tax cigarettes and beer so much that only the rich can afford to buy them. Then they get to solve the problem of people spending all their money on stuff, and they get rich at the same time!

The rich pay for cigars and alcohol, the poor are forced to quit. No addiction and money problems! Win win

Plus, i dont see anything wrong with a swig of beer or two any day. Its the really desperate people that force the government to impose rules. Those that would rob a convenience store for a can of beer

make it unprofitable to manufacture such drugs.

great idea.

Feh, that only works in theory.
Beggers who are addicted don't spend their change on food.

Yeah so if the price of cigars and alcohol is so high they would be forced to quit because their beggings wont be enough to pay for it.

Or rob the store for a cigarette and a can of beer. But that sounds like some insane crazy plan so hm.

Why would anyone want to drink or get high when it makes you look like this -

Sadly, it also makes this happen (and this one's real!) -

by unprofitable that could mean two completely different things. one make it so the production of alcohol is taxed so heavily you can't sell it. or two make it so that just about anyone could have their very own distillery thus making the production of alcohol unprofitable for mass manufacture.

and thats not just alcohol.

marijuana, cigarettes just about any of the more natural drugs. I still think things like cocaine and such should be illegal its dangerous to manufacture and its highly addictive.

Crystal Meth. Now that's some scary s*** right there.

I don't understand why people do drugs in the first place, but anyway...

I think alcohol and drugs should be illegal and the cops should crack down on them harder. Or higher bounty hunters or something.

I think most people do drugs because of Peer Pressure.