T21

Recently my opponent sponsored and passed this T21 Bill.

Too often I find that Politician's think it's so important to have some law that they can tell their constituents that they are responsible for in order to feel like they have accomplished something while they are in office. Recently the Governor signed into law an additional 106 new laws for our Police to enforce...yet failed to have the backs of these same officers that must enforce these new laws in 2014 and forward...

Why not eliminate some of the laws that will not be enforced anyway....

To look at this 18 vs 21 age limit from a mother's point of view...then I am quite sure that if the State/County/Cities had the manpower to actually enforce this law, a mother may appreciate it.

This bill brings us closer and closer to that of New York’s Laws which eventually led to the untimely death of a man, simply because he was selling individual cigarettes, which had been deemed illegal to do by another law.

If we are to decide that 18-year old’s do not have the capability to think for themselves yet then we must agree they are not adults and thus...Voting should be revoked till 21, tattoo's and piercings age should be moved to 21, Service to our Great Country should not be allowed till 21, buy a gun, get married, drive, own a credit card and most assuredly teens should not be held on trial as adults until they turn 21.

The reality is that neither the age limit of 18 or 21 will stop teens from smoking nor vaping and there is just not enough manpower to enforce this new law. Like the real problems behind SB5 we are just creating more reasons to Jail or Fine people and businesses to create more revenue for the County. So to say that this law will cut the numbers of new smokers in half as Mr Page stated in the news...is a reach at best.

Those who are going to smoke whatever product they are going to smoke are just going to go online or to the next County to purchase their products....and St Louis County will need to seek out a New Tax to replace the lost revenue from the precious cigarette tax, which by the way is again coming before the public to increase this Nov 8th.

But most importantly we have to ask ourselves...Since those 7 members on the Council represent a million people...instead of presuming they know better, for the people---Shouldn't they have asked their constituents what we want on this matter before bringing it to a Vote of 7? Like Mark Harder did on his Facebook feed... or better yet this one was big enough to at minimum put to a vote of the population. At least through a population vote, we would know that the people wanted this and not just the council.

In addition to my text above which explains my concerns on the bill, I am reminded of another issue this bill presents for St Louis County...

If indeed the St Louis County Council believes as they have passed this bill that 18 year old’s are not old enough to make decisions for themselves about their lives....

Then how can the County Prosecutor ever put a 17-20-year-old on Trial for a crime as an Adult?

His own Council has just stated that 18-20-year old’s are not old enough to make adult decisions....

Vote 4 Amy for St Louis County Council to tell Sam Page you did not appreciate his T21 Bill www.amypoelker2.com

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Amy Poelker, Linda Ragsdale Treasurer.