SACRAMENTO, CA-- Call it crazy, but in California you can't buy cigarettes until you're 21, but you can now legally choose to kill yourself at 18. That is, if you're terminally ill.
New laws went into effect this week banning smoking for the under 21 crowd. California is just the second state to make this change after Hawaii. And sorry, vapeheads, you can no longer do your thing at public California spots including schools, hospitals and restaurants.
More controversial is the Right to Die law (or for the p.c. crowd, the End of Life law). California residents with less than six months to live can now legally take medicine to end it all.
"Often times, this comes at the end of a very long fight against something," says Susan Eggman, with the California State Assembly. "This is not something (where) people get a terminal illness and they say, 'Oh, I don't wanna do this anymore.'"
Critics worry this law will encourage insurance companies to offer only assisted suicide to the terminally ill, rather than other more expensive treatments.
California is just the fifth state in the U.S. to offer end of life options. Ironic that some states will still pay to put people to death but won't let those suffering choose to die on their own terms.
