Unfortunately, I'm going to have to pull a "back in my day" to start out with.  Back in my day, growing up in Wisconsin, the age to smoke was 16.  At the time it made all the sense in the world.  First, everyone was smoking and, second, at 16 you were a grown up.  Right?  Ya, not so much and maybe because the drinking age was 18 the state was just following a normal Wisconsin progression. These days I can't imagine 16 year olds being allowed to smoke.

Then there's the drinking age argument that it should be 18 because if you're old enough to die for your country you should be able to drink.  Gubernatorial candidate Whitmer has proposed that the smoking age be raised from 18 to 21 siting that Michigan has a high tobacco usage rate and other states have raised the age and brought insurance rates down.  If you would have asked me both questions 40 years ago, I probably would've spilled my beer and put out a cigarette on the floor.  But now I believe the less smoking the better and the older you are the more responsible you'll be when drinking.

 

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