It sometimes seems that lawmakers and other public officials create laws just for the sake of creating laws.

As a society, there are many people who want to legislate personal choices.

New York tried it with soda. … A law limiting the size of sugary drinks to 16 ounces was struck down by a court.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently came up with a proposed law that appears largely designed to please a segment of the population without any real chance of speaking to the problem at hand.

Just about everyone knows that smoking is bad and that young people shouldn’t light up, right?

Ferguson proposed a bill this week that would increase the legal tobacco smoking age from 18 to 21.

If passed, it would be the first such law of its kind in the nation.

Ferguson presents compelling reasons for why young people shouldn’t smoke cigarettes. For example, research shows that the young adult brain, still developing between 18 and 21, is highly susceptible to nicotine addiction.

Such a law would decide for legal adults what they can and cannot do. Yes, you can vote. Yes you can drive. Yes you can get married. Yes, you can get a tattoo. Yes, you can serve in the military.

No, you cannot smoke a cigarette.

Here’s a scenario to consider: If such a law were enacted, a 20-year-old sailor, just home to Oak Harbor after deployment overseas, lights a cigarette as he is driving off base. Presumably, it would be legal for him or her to smoke on base — it’s federal property — but he or she is breaking state law by taking a drag in city limits.

Here’s a lesson policy-makers seem to forget: The best way to get people to make healthier choices isn’t to make the vice in question illegal. Prohibitionists tried it with alcohol, and marijuana is still outlawed by the federal government.

How’s that working out?

Lawmakers saw greater success at coaxing people not to use tobacco products through education about the health impacts, stricter advertising rules and higher taxes.

Smoking rates have dropped over the past few decades.

Smokers pay upwards of $10 or more to buy a pack of cigarettes nowadays. That’s a deterrent.

Washington state shouldn’t become a nanny state regulating each of our personal vices.

Ferguson’s proposed law is a bad idea.