Did Trump's fascist trial run have a camel on the front?

[jmowreader]

I suspect that Trump's opening shot in his war on democracy happened when he raised the smoking age nationally from 18 to 21.

Consider: When the drinking age was raised nationally, the states themselves made the change...okay, there was significant arm-twisting in a promise to pull a state's highway funds if they didn't do it. But the states could have easily said "no, we don't need your filthy money, we can get it back by raising taxes on alcohol, so we'll leave things the way they are."

Not with smoking and vaping. Trump just came in and said, "the smoking age nationwide is 21 and no one is grandfathered in." And it happened...right fucking now, no "we'll give you a week to stock up," no nothing.

And he had the perfect countermove for this - if a state would have wanted to set its own smoking age, the Orange Monster would have been all "I see that East Carolina thinks kids should smoke!" He also knew that no one would fight back on this, or be able to - the people so affected, basically everyone between 18 and 20 who'd just been turned into a criminal, don't have the money to hire enough of a lawyer to take this into the federal courts or enough time to get a case through the court system before they aged out of the class. On the other hand, if they WOULD have taken this into court they had a decent chance of getting it stomped on Tenth Amendment grounds.

[Croney]

1. I'm not understanding your viewpoint.

Are you saying that raising the smoking age was a bad thing?

[jmowreader]

4. I'm saying making it a federal dictate was

Drinking age is regulated by state law, and drinking causes far more short-term harm than smoking. It is very rare that a guy smokes a cigar, gets in his oversize pickup, and takes out a family. Drinking...well, that's another story.

[Polybius]

3. Yet a person can star in a porno at 18

Can't stand vaping, but I'd rather my 18 year old do that if given the choice.

[onenote]

5. That's an interesting description of what happened. But not an accurate one.

The campaign to raise the age for the sale of tobacco products nationally to 21, rather than leaving to the states, where the age varied, was ongoing for many years, was led by anti-smoking and health groups, and was the subject of legislation introduced in Congress. For example, identical bills to raise the minimum age for the sale of tobacco products were introduced in 2017 in the House and Senate. In both chambers, the bills were co-sponsored exclusively by Democrats. The bills were re-introduced in April and May 2019, again with Democrats leading the way. In the House, the bill's primary sponsor was Diana DeGette (C-CO), and had 97 co-sponsors, 76 of whom were Democrats. In the Senate the bill was introduced by Brian Schatz (D-HI) and had 18 co-sponsors, 13 of whom were Democrats.

The substantive crux of the legislation was then incorporated into the $1.4 omnibus budget bill that was enacted in December 2019 and signed by Trump. The legislation directed the FDA to adopt regulations consistent with the legislation's prohibition on the sale of tobacco products to those under 18 and its imposition of a verification requirement for sale of such products to those under 30. It contained no grandfathering clause and while it took effect immediately, it provided that enforcement could only take place after the FDA completed an implementing rulemaking.

In short, the statement in the OP that "Trump just came in and said, "the smoking age nationwide is 21 and no one is grandfathered in." And it happened...right fucking now, no "we'll give you a week to stock up," no nothing" is fiction.

See https://tobacco21.org/

[canetoad]

6. TY

[Hekate]

7. Thank you, because I was completely wtf when I read the OP...

Trump has not done one goddam good thing for the country in his life.

I think I would have noticed the alleged smoking thing because I have 2 kids now in their 40s who started smoking thanks to the Joe Camel campaign aimed at kids. They were 12 and 13 then, and my daughter is still hooked for life. I cannot express how much I loathe Big Tobacco in all its manifestations.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The authorities went back almost a decade before that

with the creation of CTP (Center for Tobacco Products) to be a new center within FDA to regulate the product.

H.R.1256 - Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009) spearheaded by Henry Waxman, where in part it says -

Allows the Secretary to restrict: (1) the sale or distribution of tobacco products if appropriate for the protection of the public health; and (2) the advertising and promotion of tobacco products consistent with, and to the full extent permitted by, the First Amendment. Prohibits restrictions that: (1) limit the sale or distribution of a tobacco product to written or oral authorization by a practitioner licensed to prescribe medicine; (2) prohibit the sale of a tobacco product in face-to-face transactions by a specific category of retail outlets; or (3) establish a minimum age of sale of tobacco products to any person older than 18 years of age.

And the above was later modified as a rider on an appropriations bill.