The Age Restriction Nicotine Hypocrisy

In order for you to purchase a cigarette, one needs to prove their age to be more than 17 in the US.  However, there is no age limit on children actually producing these drugs.  I guess the authorities believe that only through smoking is harm done.  

However, reports  from Richmond Virginia found that there are more than 140 children, some as young as 7 years old, working in nicotine laced tobacco farms.  Believe it or not, apparently it is legal for children to work alongside their parents on farms. 

However, working long hours without  enough breaks and without appropriate remuneration, these children are suffering abuse of their childhood.  Some children have developed symptoms of tobacco poisoning due to a lack of protective clothing. allowing nicotine to be absorbed through their skin while handling the tobacco plants.  This indeed is a travesty.

---

The laughable thing is, none of these children under the age of 18 who have tirelessly laboured on these tobacco farms to the detriment of their health; could walk into a store to purchase the cigar manufactured because of their handiwork.  What is wrong with this picture?  How can this hypocrisy be allowed to continue?  What's next?

These children should be protected. not enslaved or made to work especially not under such arduous conditions.  There is an age restriction on buying the cigarettes in the shop but none stopping these same children from slowly being killed by tobacco, I guess the authorities think it's ok; as long as the children are not smoking it! What a joke!

---