Condoms/minors, good or bad idea???

Does the sale of condoms to minors promote safe sex, promiscuity, or both? With the spread of unplanned pregnancies & venereal disease amongst America's under 18 crowd has allowing minors to purchase condoms been a wise idea? As a kid in Oregon I remember that "rubbers", as we called them back then were kept under the pharmacist's counter. If a person looked of questionable age(under 18) the pharmacist in question would call for proof of I.D., no kidding!
What I'm getting at is...does the sale of condoms to minors CONDONE & or PROMOTE children to indulge in adult activities? I have heard BOTH sides of the argument, one being to protect minors with safe sex, the other as promoting promiscuity.
For an example, condoms were NOT impossible for minors to purchase even during the age they were kept under the counter. During my sophomore year in 1967 my new girl friend let it be known that her mom would be gone Saturday & that the house was "ours". As she was leaving she gave me a kiss on my forehead & a wink then said don't forget your rubbers!
To make a short/humiliating story much shorter I was told by the pharmacist that I needed to be 21, that's right, "TWENTY ONE years of age to purchase prophylactics". When I told my girl friend the next day what had happened(good God I was soooo humiliated!) she just shook her head & started laughing & I mean hard! We both made our way on foot to the SAME pharmacy, she steered me to the magazine rack, she went back to the pharmacy counter & in a minute or so came back up the isle with a white sack in her hand with a dozen Sheik rubbers in it & said..."you gotta act like you know what your doing". I personally think there was a "LITTLE" gender bias involved in those days!!!
What I'm saying is...condoms were harder to come across for minors back then, but we did come up with them as I illustrated above. Unwanted pregnancies & VD were all but unknown back then amongst minors but we were definitely sexually active. How come today with condoms so available to minors that both unwanted pregnancies & VD are so rampant??? Does the ease of purchase of condoms by minors today suggest to them that they can ride bare back as well, as anything goes?
I would find it hard to believe that minors are LESS well informed about condoms & sex TODAY than we were back in the sixties. I mean I was flopping around the pharmacy counter the first time like a fish out of the water. I did not know how many condoms came in a box nor even the brand names & was too "proud" to tell my girl friend that I did not know what to do because I was still a virgin which I'm sure she all to well had already realized & she was having fun with her "green" charge!
Are the "UNWANTED" pregnancies really wanted in the hopes of public assistance?
Are minors today just too uninformed to know how to properly use condoms?
Do condoms have a higher failure rate than the condom manufactuers would likely admit to?
Is venereal disease being spread by other means than just standard intercourse?
I personally don't believe that sexual "NEEDS" can be regulated by an age of consent law any more than breathing air can be regulated by law. Both are "physiologically" driven needs. As minors hormones come on line the need for release from sexual tension in both genders becomes a necessity. Considering both the physiological & psychological needs of human sexuality it is no small wonder that back in the days when B.C. turned into A.D. that people married so young. Amongst the ancient Hebrews when a girl came into her menstrual cycle she became woman. Some have speculated that these ancient marriages were conducted for couples as young as thirteen years of age!!!
One things for certain though, VD can maim & kill, & unwanted pregnancies cost society billions per year in social programs. Would our society benefit from dropping the age of consent say down to fifteen? Maybe make divorce much more difficult to obtain for a couple? Enact harsh penalties for infidelity? I'm just FISHING for answers to this problem of VD & unplanned parenthood & would appreciate your answers/suggestions!
PS...I do not believe that there were REAL state or federal laws that restricted the sale of condoms to people over eighteen or twenty one years of age. I believe back then they were considered "blue laws", meaning they were unofficial laws supported by local folks with in the community by their PERSONAL standards. From what little I have researched about the old blue laws, they seemed to be promoted by religious zealots mostly interested in "enforcing" their view points over the local inhabitants with in their community. I'm not sure on this one so could use some input as I well could be mistaken here about this.

First off, your post is hard to read. Paragraphs and 'bite-sized' sentences would help. Now, on with the topic...

Does the sale of condoms to minors promote safe sex, promiscuity or both? Well, to me, it promotes safe sex primarily, against pregnancy and also STD's. Promiscuity is entirely different, although not an unrelated subject. I was lead to understand that promiscuity refers to sexual relationships of a man or woman who engages in sexual relations with MULTIPLE partners on a casual and/or regular basis. One partner does not (at least to me) promiscuous make, and I'm sure (most) minors aren't having it off with multiple classmates like a band of wild bonobos or something.

As much as I'm not pleased by minors having sex, it is not my place to judge them and at the end of the day, it's their choice, their decision and primarily their responsibility. They should understand all possible consequences of sex, from pregnancy to STD's, and take as many precautions as they can with their education. I don't think the sale of condoms either condones or promotes children to indulge in adult activities, rather actually making their decision to become sexually active safer in question as by that age, they are old enough to make their own choices in life. It would be advisable to wait until one is older and adhere to the law, but hey, I'm not one to force my opinions through!

Now... why unwanted pregnancies and sexual diseases are so rampant, and why condoms are so readily avaliable as compared to years ago. Well, time has moved on a bit and underaged sex is not so taboo anymore. Religion doesn't rule over us (some of us maybe, but not all of us) anymore and enforce everyone to share the same moralistic viewpoints regarding certain matters, and... phamacies sell them quite happily too these days. Unwanted pregnancies... sometimes the condom fails, as does the pill, but I doubt it is the fault of a higher than reported failure rate. Every condom my partner's used hasn't failed, nor did the pills I took. It is virtually almost always successful when used PROPERLY. Pills have to be taken at exactly the right times, and condoms can be tricky beasts to put on. It can be done however.

It's a troublesome issue, but I don't think we need to go back to the bad old days of religious zealotism and pour scorn on young mothers again. It takes two to tango on this matter, you know. Provide aid and education, but not so much that it becomes a 'job alternative' and seems more attractive than working for a living. The age of consent is fine where it is currently, and does help protect younger children from predatory paedos, even if only a little. Making divorce harder won't help, for does that not make the point of pregnant minors contradictory? Since when have minors been getting married over here anyway?

I don't know, I'm tired. If I haven't got a problem with understanding how to use contraceptives, then I don't see why anybody else should have problems about it. It's childsplay!

Lots of people will try to argue that making condoms available to minors will promote sex, but the fact is, they're going to do it anyway. Better they have protection than not.

Originally Posted by T-Nemesis

Lots of people will try to argue that making condoms available to minors will promote sex, but the fact is, they're going to do it anyway. Better they have protection than not.

Exactly.

It's the same reason that abstinence-only education is a bad idea. If you don't allow kids to have safe sex (or tell them that condoms et. al. are a waste of money) then they'll have sex, they just won't have safe sex.

I'm all for it.

NOT selling them to minors actually makes us want to do it more. The forbidden fruit is always the most tempting. And we are doing it anyway. Don't want 13 year old girls running around pregnant do we?

"My great grandma is 40!"

Our college back at my home town had condoms in vending machines because there was too much unwanted pregnancy's. Even though I think its wrong before marriage (just my personal opinion), if you're going to screw around, be responsible...

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

Our college back at my home town had condoms in vending machines because there was too much unwanted pregnancy's. Even though I think its wrong before marriage (just my personal opinion), if you're going to screw around, be responsible...

Marriage was probably created to prevent the spread of disease.

Originally Posted by GarmGarf

Marriage was probably created to prevent the spread of disease.

LOL as a married person, I can assure you that is false.

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

LOL as a married person, I can assure you that is false.

Then why was marriage created? I wonder how it became a sacrament.

Marriage was originally an economic agreement, and a way to help ensure peace between two different factions.

The whole "no sex before marriage" really started appearing when the idea that every man a woman had sex with would affect the characteristics of her child.

Suddenly it became common "knowledge" that if your wife wasn't a virgin then your child would only be partially yours.

It took a few millenia for this idea to disappear.

Though I believe minors should practice abstinence, I also believe condoms are a heck of a lot better than no condoms.

Originally Posted by GDwarf

Marriage was originally an economic agreement, and a way to help ensure peace between two different factions.

The whole "no sex before marriage" really started appearing when the idea that every man a woman had sex with would affect the characteristics of her child.

Suddenly it became common "knowledge" that if your wife wasn't a virgin then your child would only be partially yours.

It took a few millenia for this idea to disappear.

Ahh, many thanks GDwarf, you have filled my ignorance with knowledge.

Originally Posted by GarmGarf

Then why was marriage created? I wonder how it became a sacrament.

Let me just say that Marriage is easier than being single. It's a teamwork, it's unity, it's nothing but love used in the best way possible.

@GDwarf: I haven't heard any of that, so... I'm glad ignorance is bliss, course, because of Buzz and mine's religion, our views of marriage are very different.

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

Let me just say that Marriage is easier than being single. It's a teamwork, it's unity, it's nothing but love used in the best way possible.

@GDwarf: I haven't heard any of that, so... I'm glad ignorance is bliss, course, because of Buzz and mine's religion, our views of marriage are very different.

Oh, whats the difference in religions? Which one do you posses, and which one does the other posses? Pray tell.