Let me repeat the original post, because I think it's been twisted and misunderstood in the course of the discussion:

Ontario has recently added another anti-smoking law. No one is allowed to smoke in a car if any of the passengers is under 16 years old. The second person to be ticketed for this was a smoking driver who had a fifteen year old smoker in his car. While the driver was being ticketed, the fifteen year old girl stepped out of the car and lit up a smoke. In Ontario it is legal for children to smoke; it's just not legal to give or sell cigarettes to anyone under 19 years. Does this mean that in a car carrying a passenger under 16, the passenger is allowed to smoke, but the driver isn't?

Assuming that Jim's description of the law is correct, it says that no one is allowed to smoke in the car if there are passengers under the age of 16 - so the 15-yr-old smoker is also not allowed to smoke in the car. If that's the way it's written, I think it's a good law. Yeah, there are possible absurdities, but it accomplishes its goal of keeping kids out of a smoky, closed environment.

Jim says it's legal for kids to smoke, but not for people to sell or give them tobacco products. I think that, too, is a good law. I don't know if I'd go so far as to use the same approach for alcohol, but maybe it might not be a bad idea. Kids are going to smoke and drink, one way or another - and maybe it's not worth spending money on chasing down kids who smoke and drink and calling them criminals. Maybe it's better to stop the problem at the supply end. If anything, I think teenager drinking and smoking should be punished with a reasonable fine and nothing more - but suppliers should be dealt with severely.

For decades, drug enforcement agencies in the U.S. have spent very little money on chasing down drug addicts - they focus their efforts on suppliers.

-Joe-