To the editor:

I applaud any efforts to curb smoking. We have many reasons for a drinking age of 21, and health concerns are certainly one of them. I grew up in Utah where the legal age for tobacco products is 19. We allow men and women who are 18 to vote. So now, California is saying you can decide who leads, but you don’t have enough sense to know smoking and alcohol are bad for you.

But are we really concerned with the health of our youth? If we are so concerned about the health of the youth of America why can you join the military at 17 and go to war at 18? I joined the Marines at 18 and went to Vietnam at 19 but could not smoke in Utah or buy a drink when I enlisted.

We have no problem sending men and women into combat at 18 but have such varying ideas of when young men and women are mature enough to make their own decisions about their health.

Let’s raise the legal age for the military to 21. Better yet let’s send the men and woman who vote for war go to war. If Congress and the state legislatures actually had to fight the wars they wage there would be a lot less war.

David Butcher,

Lawrence