In terms of avoidable fatalities, tobacco is America's most deadly "terrorism" threat... a corporate scourge that kills a half million Americans every year. The medical cost of supporting tobacco's victims is huge, one we all bear.

I've witnessed three friends pass away with lung cancer. Their end game was painful and expensive. All three started smoking when they were teenagers.  Raising the purchase age won't take away a young person's liberty as much as it may help them resist the peer pressure to use tobacco.

Of course there'll be those who'll say if young men are old enough to be drafted, they should be old enough to buy smokes. But, having been drafted long ago myself, I'd say today's draft is far less likely to kill someone than tobacco.