Canada Mulling Over Upping National Smoking Age to 21

Well, it seems the ubiquitous sight of teens crushing darts outside of their high school may become an increasingly rare one in the coming years.

The federal government is mulling over the idea of upping the minimum age you can buy cigarettes across Canada from 18 to 21.

The idea is being floated in a Health Canada paper called Seizing the opportunity: the future of tobacco control in Canada. The National Post has reported that the paper has been "quietly distributed" throughout the department as it considers a new national tobacco-control strategy—the current strategy is set to expire in 2018.

A majority of the changes proposed in the paper focus on curtailing youths from starting the cruel and expensive habit of smoking.

"Preventing young people and others from starting tobacco use has been a key pillar of federal, provincial and territorial approaches to tobacco control," reads the paper. "Enforcement of the federal Tobacco Act and its regulations is a key measure to protect youth."

Other ideas raised in the report include developing regulations that would reduce the addictiveness of tobacco, the creation of smoke and vape-free spaces (post-secondary campuses, in public parks, or in multi-unit dwellings,) and cracking down on illicit tobacco contraband.

The government is also questioning whether or not they "should take a more active role in encouraging adult smokers to switch to vaping products." Yeah, you read that right, Canada might become a pro-vape country—get ready to lose any sort of street cred this country ever had if that happens, Canada.

The end goal of the new strategy is to "radically reduce the unacceptable burden inflicted on our society by tobacco use." The reduction would follow in line with the declining trend of cigarette consumption in Canada. Since 2001, the rate of smokers in the country has fallen from 22 percent to 13 and it is aiming to hit five percent by 2035.

Upon first glance, it's pretty easy to see that upping the smoking age could actually significantly decrease the number of smokers in Canada over time. It will, like it or not, make it harder for teenagers to get their hands on darts, which is the age most people start their addiction.

Keeping darts out of the hands of the youngins is a good thing, because, and I say this as a smoker, if you're over 18 and you start smoking for the first time, you're an idiot.

Lead photo via Flickr user Roman Pavlyuk.

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