The Vermont House gave initial approval Tuesday to a bill that would incrementally raise the state’s legal smoking age over three years from 18 to 21, something Hawaii and California have already done. Its advocates contend that the legislation would cut youth smoking rates, reduce long-term addiction to cigarettes, save lives and decrease health care costs — all important societal goods. 

 One of the bill’s prime sponsors, Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, a physician, has argued that similar measures have cut youth smoking by 50 percent in other jurisdictions and has predicted that 10,000 Vermonters now under the age of 18 will die prematurely of tobacco-related illnesses unless something is done. That is a prospect that can be only regarded with horror by anyone who has watched a family member or friend waste away from lung cancer, or a similar illness brought about by tobacco use. And while it may seem crass to attach a price tag to such suffering, very clearly millions of dollars of health care spending are at issue as well, no small public-policy consideration in such tight budget times as these.

But despite its many merits, this legislation is defective in an important respect. It is inconsistent with the range of rights currently enjoyed by 18-year-olds, and thus constitutes an incoherent, if well meaning, exception that cannot bear scrutiny.

Society has determined that 18-year-olds are adults in almost all legal respects and are entitled to exercise their judgment, for good or ill, in the most consequential matters in life. They are eligible to vote, to marry, to incur debt, to serve on juries, to possess firearms and to enlist in the military. Clearly, not all of those between 18 and 21 make sound judgments in these contexts, just as they do not in deciding to use tobacco. But there are no moves afoot that we know of to make couples wait until they are 21 to wed and start a family; or to disenfranchise young voters; or to deprive the military of its youngest, strongest and least risk-averse recruits.

In this last regard, advocates of raising the smoking age point to studies showing that the brains of 18-year-olds are not fully developed when it comes to the capability for decision-making; indeed, young people are often heedless of consequences and feel immortal. However, that does not exempt them, for example, from answering for their behavior in criminal court, or from registering for the military draft. And it’s a hard case to make that someone who has served his country in Iraq should not be allowed to buy cigarettes back home (or a drink, for that matter).

The rule of law depends to a large extent on two things: that laws are seen to be fair and that they are applied equally. It cannot be promoted by treating as children in one respect people who are regarded in nearly all others as competent adults capable of making their own decisions. And having the right to make decisions carries with it the possibility that some of them will be ill-considered, or outright bad. We urge the Senate to bear that in mind when it now considers the bill.