NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Yuni Kim, a
second-year psychology and women’s studies student, smokes a
cigarette in front of Kerckhoff Hall.
By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Staff
No butts about it, hundreds of UCLA smokers may soon be puffing
their cigarettes illegally if the California Medical Association
has its way.
The CMA ““ composed of approximately 35,000 physicians who
work to promote smoking awareness and direct money from tobacco
settlements to health care programs ““ voted Sunday to
increase both the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 in California and
punishment for violators and called for stricter enforcement of
existing smoking law.
CMA is currently in the process of searching for an author to
propose the bill to the state legislature as soon as possible.
“What we hope is that, even though we know it won’t
stop every kid from smoking, it will at least put the legislation
out there for a horrible habit that is detrimental to your
health,” said CMA spokesperson Heather Campbell.
“Our goal was to have a smoke-free California by 2000, but
now that date has been pushed back to 2010,” Campbell
said.
Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, whose district
includes UCLA, has been in communication with CMA but has not been
officially asked to author the bill, said Scott Svonkin, chief of
staff for Koretz.
“Assemblyman Koretz is very interested in raising the age
limit to 21 … there’s no need for someone to get access to
deadly cigarettes,” Svonkin said.
Koretz, who is on the state Committee on Public Health, worked
with the CMA when he was a member of the West Hollywood City
Council to pass the 1994 legislation that made it illegal to smoke
in California restaurants.
Peter Warren, vice president of communication for CMA, said the
legislation is in response to tobacco companies making a stronger
effort to target youth.
“Four-hundred and twenty thousand customers die every
year, and in order to survive as a business, you have to replace
them with kids,” he said.
Philip Bromberg, a 20-year-old political science student and
smoker said the bill would be an effective way to reduce the
availability of cigarettes.
“It’s a lot harder to pass for 21 than 18,” he
said.
And even though he supports the legislation, Bromberg pointed
out what he considered an inconsistency in policy.
“Eighteen-year-olds are eligible to go to war and smoke,
but not drink,” he added. “If they want to raise the
smoking age they should also raise the draft age.”
While many physicians in California support the increase in age
limit, some groups such as the Fight Ordinances & Restrictions
to Control & Eliminate Smoking (FORCES) oppose the
legislation.
President of FORCES California chapter Ray Domkus said that,
although in opposition to the legislation, the bill wouldn’t
bother him because it would be very ineffective.
“People don’t pay attention to the smoking
age,” he said. “If they want to smoke, they could raise
the age to 40, and it wouldn’t stop people from
smoking.”
Domkus said he is a stern believer in civil liberties and said
that in today’s society everyone claims to be a victim.
“Once upon a time when a man decided he wanted to do
something, he would to do it,” he said. “It was his own
freedom to do as he pleased and to take responsibility for his
actions, and now since everyone’s a victim, there’s not
any sort of responsibility.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
lifelong smokers have a one-in-two chance of dying from a
smoking-related disease, and if that smoker dies from a
smoking-related disease, he or she loses an average of 12 years of
life.
Under current California legislation, the fine for underage
smoking is $50.
The smoking age is 19 in Alabama, Alaska and Utah, but no state
currently has a 21-year legal age.