Should the age of consent be greater than for buying drugs?

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The age of consent here in England is 16. However, the age at which one is allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes is 18. Given that the fallout from having sex involves more people, and can ruin more lives, than cigarettes - and in many cases alcohol - can (STIs, unwanted pregnancies etc), should the age of consent be raised above the age at which one can buy these drugs?

If someone is old enough to accept the risks and consequences of having sex, then surely they are old enough to accept the consequences of smoking, which affect only them directly, unlike with sex, where there's the possibility of a bad decision affecting not just to the two people directly involved, but also potential offspring from said decision...

Of course, if we had one single age of majority, it wouldn't be such a problem.

I would rather that everything was one age. Have an age of majority for the major things and stick to them. But, equally, don't treat people like children when they're adults.

In the USA, people can't legally get boozed up until the age of 21. I think that raising the age to 21 was a good idea. The overall results have been more positive than negative.

I would also favour raising the legal smoking age. Maybe to 30.

Coitus is a normal part of life. Trying to get 16 year olds not to partake, when hormones have taken over their bodies, may be a vain effort.

But the consequences of coitus are likely to be greater than those of smoking - cigarettes don't give people STIs or get them pregnant. A teenage girl who smokes isn't going to become a teenage mother (assuming she abstains from sex and parthenogenesis doesn't occur); a teenage girl who has sex may well become a teenage mother. The consequences of smoking are far less, so surely people can be trusted to make that decision about cigarettes if they're old enough to make that decision about sex?

There is always a risk of STDs, pregnancy, etc when having intercourse, but kids are kids and they're not going to stop f***ing. They do stupid things and that's all there is to it.

In Tennessee, I'm pretty sure the age of consent is 18. So if an 18 year old has sex with a 17 year old, he could end up a sex offender, with his life ruined forever.

Actually, I think that it would be ideal to raise the age of consent to 54, but only for men. For ladies, it should stay at 16, or maybe be lowered to 14.

The legal age of adulthood (age of majority) is 18 and with that you can vote, join the armed forces, buy a rifle or shotgun, and have most of the rights of an adult.
You have to wait to turn 21 to buy any kind of alcoholic beverage or buy a handgun.
There should be one legal age for everything and not acquire your rights piecemeal.
If you're not mature enough by 18 then it's your parents fault.
I'm still not mature enough to be 18 but oh well...........

Its all very arbitrary. It wasnt as if on the stroke of midnight on the last day of my being 15 I was suddenly, magically endowed with a wonderful sense of being able to make informed choices over my sexual behaviour and working in the post school environment.

In my view, it should be made illegal for adults to have sex with anyone not an adult, and for any two people under the age of maturity, well I think each case should be judged on its own merits.

What really stinks is the double standard with the age of consent for heterosexuals and for homosexuals being different.

One should be considered an adult all at one age when it comes to being able to drink, drive, smoke, join the military. It seems rather silly that they are all different.