this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
504 points (98.5% liked)

World News

32322 readers
1636 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.

Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] anewbeginning@lemmy.world 118 points 1 year ago (54 children)

Creating a new illegal drug market.

[–] Laser@feddit.de 83 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (32 children)

In fairness, smoking tobacco is one of the few routes of administration where outlawing makes sense. The overall societal cost is very high, even for non-smokers, as in second-hand smokers and cigarette butts littering. It's one of the few substances that health experts often recommend to make as unattractive as possible, be it through taxation or law.

I don't really mind vaping or heating that much, I'd be fine with making cigarettes illegal while keeping the alternatives. Unfortunately, latest legislation has imposed higher burdens on the latter while doing jack about smoking.

[–] irationslippers@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My understanding is that cig smokers actually save our NHS a fair bit of cash, as they die early & rapidly, and they're a boon to the Exchequer due to the huge sin taxes we have

load more comments (31 replies)
load more comments (52 replies)