Because people have been more and more conditioned to obey year after year. To be absolute pushovers who never fight against the grain, never question groupthink, etc. Grandfathering the criminalization (using violent enforcement) of something like smoking a cigarette is a shining example of what's to come.

Just fucking ban it already.

Smoking age should follow the age of boomers, age 80+

Save the people from themselves. They are too ignorant to have control of their bodies.