Legal age to buy and sell

[marc anthony]

Another thread about legal age prompted me to think about some of the interesting laws we have relative to "buying" and "selling" our vices. Does anyone else find it interesting that, in the US, you need to be 18 to make porn, but 21 to buy it? Or that you can sell liquor at 18 (cocktail waitresses, not bartenders), but you must be 21 to drink it?

 

Does that mean if prositution ever becomes legal, you will need to be 18 to hook, but 21 to buy?

[Rod Hagen]

> Does anyone else find it

>interesting that, in the US, you need to be 18 to make porn,

>but 21 to buy it?

 

Or that you can obtain a drivers license at 15 in North Dakota, and then legally drive into Minnesota, or any other state, where 16 is the legal minimum age.

 

I find all those inconsitencies more annoying than interesting. (Stupid Tipper Gore. Back in 1985 wasn't it her who bullied states into raising their drinking ages by lobying for such a rider on a State by State Freeway Funding Bill?)

[Guest YR]

Actually it was signed into law July 17, 1984, by Pres. Ronald Reagan. The person most credited with the passage of this bill was Candy Lightner, president and founder of MADD.

 

[http://www.asfar.org/zine/5th/cover.html]

[Rod Hagen]

Thank you YR.

[Guest Kalifornia]

Marc I agree these are interesting and in my opinion absurd.

 

Mark -Kalifornia

[Huey]

Also at 18 you can legally own weapons or be drafted yet in most States you cannot even have a beer

-----------

WAR IS OVER

if you want it

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

[Michael]

> Does anyone else find it interesting that, in the US,

> you need to be 18 to make porn, but 21 to buy it?

 

Would that it were as simple as that ...

 

... as with so many other things, these issues are, in theory at least, matters for the state not the federal government so even if it does turn out to be the case that you have to be 18 to make porn and 21 to buy it in every state of the union it isn't because there is one law that says that, it's because there are 50 state laws ... and probably a few federal ones besides ...

 

btw where did you get the idea that you have to be 21 to buy pornography - it's probably true in some states, but I doubt that it is in all of them.

 

... and no, I don't think it's interesting, I think it's crazy

[marc anthony]

>

>btw where did you get the idea that you have to be 21 to buy

>pornography - it's probably true in some states, but I doubt

>that it is in all of them.

>

>... and no, I don't think it's interesting, I think it's

>crazy

 

Well, you are correct that I have not visited EVERY state... but ANY porn mail order company that you order porn from requires that you be 21 to buy, regardless of what state you reside in. In fact, they will not even ship to SOME states. And I would really be interested to know if anyone has been to any state (not CANADA which is not a state LOL) which allows 18-20 yo into nude bars, strip clubs, or porn shops, although there may be 19 yo's actually dancing in there or appearing in the vids.

[guyinsf]

Perhaps Michigan's laws have changed since I was 18, which admittedly was two decades ago, but I was able to go to strip shows and porn shops, buy porn, etc at the age of 18. While 18-20 year olds could go to most bars, they could not drink. (This was shortly after the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21, so perhaps this was a "transitional" attitude and practice.)

 

When I made trips to Chicago as a 19 and 20 year old, I was also able to buy porn, etc.

[marc anthony]

Interesting... I wonder if it is a federal mail statute that prohibits the shipping of porn to the 18-20 yo crowd, or whether it is just the comfort level of the porn companies themselves. You would think they would sell to whomever it is legal for them to.

 

If it is were a state law that holds them back, they would logically list the states that they could ship to for the younger set. Almost all specify the states (and sometimes even regions within a state) that they will not ship to at all.