A draft law in the UK to create a "smoke-free generation" by banning smoking for anybody born after 2008 has cleared both houses of parliament. Only the king's signature remains for it to become law.
  • Technically, the new law will raise the legal age requirement in the UK for buying cigarettes, cigars or tobacco, which is currently 18, by one year in every subsequent year, starting on January 1, 2027
  • This will effectively mean that people born on or after January 1, 2009 will never be eligible to buy them
  • Retailers will face financial penalties for selling the products to those not entitled to them
  • The government will also be empowered to impose a new registration system for smoking and vaping products entering the country, seeking to improve oversight
  • The bill will expand the UK’s indoor smoking ban to a series of outdoor public spaces, for instance in children’s playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals
  • Most indoor spaces that are designated smoke-free will become vape-free as well
  • Smoking in designated areas outside pubs and bars and other hospitality settings will remain permissible
  • Smoking and vaping will remain legal in people’s homes
  • Vaping will become illegal in cars if someone under the age of 18 is inside, to match existing rules on smoking
  • Advertising for smoking and vaping products will be banned
  • People aged 18 or older will remain eligible to purchase vaping products, but some items targeted at younger consumers like disposable vapes have already been outlawed as part of the program
  • SailorFuzz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    5 hours ago

    1930s didnt have overwhelming evidence that smoking was stupid, addictive, and disastrously dangerous to your health.

    Smoking doesnt produce the same euphoria and consistency of drugs on the current blackarket. The juice wont be worth the squeeze. Financially, there wont be enough “consumers” for a cigarette black market.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      5 hours ago

      I think you misunderestimate how addictive cigerettes are. My friends mom goes through $80 worth of cigerettes every 2-3 days.

      • backalleycoyote@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        Real question- is that volume or branding? Depending on where you are/what brand, that might be a 1.5-2 pack a day habit of higher quality smokes; not unheard of for a typical heavy smoker. If you’re spending that much on ass-end packs that cost you $6/ea, that’s pushing 4 packs a day, which is like legendary status few can achieve anymore.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          45 minutes ago

          Oh, I thought you were replying to thr other message. Still, it’s just below here, where I said she smokes 5-8 packs a day.

          She also has this bag of loose tabacco where she rolls her own. She uses that when she can’t afford marlborrow.

      • SailorFuzz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        4 hours ago

        Right,but theyre not banning it for people like her… theyre banning it for people born after 2008. Is your mom 18 years old?

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          3 hours ago

          Are you claiming that minors don’t smoke because it’s not legal? That’s what you’re going with?

          • SailorFuzz@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            3 hours ago

            God youre annoying.

            Youre just looking to be combative. Youre cool dude, so cool, just so so cool that you should go back to reddit. So fucking cool how you intentionally need to argue the most braindead niche “uhm actually” talking point you can muster.

            • wheezy@lemmy.mlEnglish
              1·
              1 hour ago

              You can just not respond next time mate. When you type out a comment like this; just go “nah” and hit “discard” next time.

              Also, your entire point rests on “they won’t do it because it’s bad for them AND illegal”.

              Have you ever been a teenager? Something that they are told “your too young to do that” is like crack for them. It’s not “niche” to consider this major factor of how people get addicted early in life.

    • skaffi@infosec.pubEnglish
      7·
      4 hours ago

      There already is a big, thriving black market for cigarettes in the EU country I’m in, simply due to high tobacco taxes. I can only assume the same will be true for other places that tax similarly. Are you really saying that an outright ban won’t result in a greater unmet demand, and thus more customers shopping at the black markets? It sounds unlikely to me that black market dealers will close up shop, because of a ban on the legal sale of cigarettes. The black market is already banned, but that’s not exactly stopping them.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
      4·
      5 hours ago

      Cigarette companies add things to make them more addictive, including chemical flavorings and extra nicotine. It doesn’t negate what you said, but enhances it.