should minors be allowed to smoke/possess tobacco?

[Alcon]

Of course not.  Dip is the one of the most disgusting things in the world.  In fact, in my top 10 list of the least desirable things a girl can do, dip topped out at #1.  Let's spare the gums of people not mature enough not to know not to do it.

I think thick mascara and chocolate yogurt are disgusting and unattractive too, but I'm not going to ban them

[Alcon]

No, it should remain illegal, but society should continue to turn a blind eye towards it...it provides convenient grounds to bust people that, for whatever reason, you can't pin bigger charges on, so keeping it illegal gives law enforcement one more charge to bring down on those people's heads.  Same way I feel about booze...if there's someone under twenty-one that really needs to be arrested, alcohol charges are a convenient way of doing it.

MIP (of alcohol) is an bustable offense.  Like Tweed says, minors possessing tobacco is not even a "citable" offense in most places, as far as I know.  Definitely not arrestable.

[Alcon]

it turns out it is illegal for minors to smoke/possess in Maryland.  not sure how or if this is enforced.

it is actually illegal in what looks like a majority of states:

http://wecard.org/oltusers/wc_slsc_otl.html


the fact that none of us knew this seems to suggest that such laws are largely unenforced.  could somebody in a minor-in-possession state provide anecdotes?  NY has no laws at all for minors - it is even legal for a minor to *try* and purchase tobacco - so I'm in the dark.

Huh.  It's still overwhelmingly a citation crime, though.  You can't arrest people for that.