- 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



Now, this is a good thing, but I can’t help but imagine in 2099, a 90yr old begging their friends to sell them a pack
Vaping is still legal. Why wouldn’t he just get his nicotine high from a vape?
Same reason my smoker friend tells me he hates vaping: “it just hits different”
But having to use a shitty black market for cigarettes every day would surely motivate most of them to try to learn to love the vape.
The black market would then only be supported by irredeemable vape haters. Who got hooked on cigarettes while never in their life being able to buy them legally. Which doesn’t seem like a big market to me - so might not be big enough to be profitable.
Better they buy regulated weed, in edibles, oil, or otherwise.
Lol I see your an optimist when it comes to uk recreational
I mean, I do not think they will, just that that would be less bad.