UK introduces a bill that would eventually make the purchase of cigarettes illegal
UK introduces a bill that would eventually make the purchase of cigarettes illegal
Legislation intended to ban today’s British children from ever legally being able to smoke has begun its journey through Parliament.
Summary
The UK has introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, aiming to make it illegal for future generations to buy cigarettes. The bill proposes gradually raising the minimum smoking age, so those born after January 1, 2009, will never be able to purchase tobacco legally.
It also includes restrictions on vape flavors and packaging to prevent youth addiction and bans smoking in certain outdoor spaces, though pub beer gardens are exempt.
Supported by the Labour Party's majority, the legislation seeks to create a “smoke-free U.K.” and combat smoking-related deaths.
Do you know what I'd like to see?
Instead of banning them, ban the extraction of profit on producing and selling them. Turn them into an entirely recreational market. I'd love to see the outcome of trying that.
I like the way you think.
Capitalists would rather there be a ban so that proles don't realize how much they're getting f**ked.
Wouldn't that just push sales into the black market? Unless the government nationalized the sale of cigarettes, which seems... not great, if they believe in smoking cessation
No, it wouldn't
People working in and supporting the industry would work and consume as they always have.
It's the business owners that would be hurting, as their entire existence depends on siphoning off the excess people are willing to pay for products and services.
Prices wouldn't even go up. Businesses already charge the most people are willing to pay.
Pushing an entire business into black market over time... Who in their right mind approved this?
Won’t somebody think of the poor struggling businesses.
Where would society be without those good old death stick sellers who hid decades of research into health risks and marketed to children. Cornerstone of society and they’re trying to ban it? Savages.
Are you stupid? It's not about the "businesses" and their well-being. It's about the effect that black markets have on society.
People are going to get their drugs whether they're legal or not. If you paid attention in history class and reality, you'd know that prohibition and the war on drugs does not solve the issue.
Exactly. Smoking was dying off due to vaping until all these countries got a stick up their ass over it and decided to either outright ban vapes or put ridiculous regulations on them. This is why everyone uses disposables in the US now and toss their lithium batteries in the trash every couple days.
People who don't like cancer and want to take the insane pressure these death sticks put on the health service.
Who in their right mind supports mega corps selling addictive cancer causing products to young people?
They are an island nation with very strict controls. The black market will be small. The real worry would be no different than age restrictions already in effect: find someone old enough to buy it for you.
Because it's a gradual ban, rather than a blanket ban for everyone immediately, they are hoping the demand won't be there by the time the last generation of legal smokers die off (sooner than you think given cigarettes are designed to kill).
People who don't understand how things work.
Or people who benefit from there being more criminals...
Yah, banning drugs works great. And doing it in the most cowardly way possible really elevates that.
Prohibition has been such a huge success. The only option is expanding it! \s
I guess the difference between the prohibition in the US and this bill, is that the alcohol prohibition banned it to everyone at once. People who were used to drinking or down right alcoholics had a strong incentive to obtain alcohol from somewhere, so there was a market for the underground moonshine producers. This bill isn't targeting people who are already addicted to nicotine, but rather aims at preventing people developing the addiction in the first place, so I can imagine the market for underground tobacco growers or smugglers will be much smaller and less profitable. I am optimistic that this approach will be more successful than the 20s in America, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
🥱
More black markets aren't the solution.
This is literally an idea I had when I was 16 years old. I was pretty dumb when I was 16.
Not here in the USA! With Trump, we're going to recycle cigarettes into baby clothes and we'll be using PTFE to bond the fibers together for a strong cancer healthcare company.
Sort of related but I saw that black plastic spatulas and other black plastic items contain toxic flame retardants because black plastic items are made from recycled e-waste.
It's the gallium dopants that get me excited for more. 😂
MACA - Make America Cancer Again
Sounds good to me, tbh. Increasing health for everyone involved, reducing costs on medical services. I think New Zealand had something similiar? Instead of an outright ban affecting everyone this is slowly phased out, so young kids probably won't even miss it.
NZ reversed that ban 1 year after announcing it and decades before it would have gone into effect.
I personally support this plan. Smoking in the UK has already plummeted. A lot of smokers have moved to vaping. Unfortunately, those left are often the ruder ones. Limiting where they cam smoke, or reduce expire for everyone else is a big dead for me.
Additionally, it's not banning nicotine, it's banning cigarettes. Vapes have changes the balance on that one. They are less damaging, and cause far less issues with passive smoking. This acts as a pressure relief valve, rather than a blanket nicotine ban. Also, at no point will an existing (legal) smoker go from legal to illegal.
The vape issue definitely needs fixing. A number have found advertising to younger users is a good money maker. Limiting the options here l, without an outright ban would help reduce the harm to children. It wouldn't significantly affect ex smokers who moved to vaping.
Next do beer!
I dare you Parliament.In England? Lol
It's part of Labour's platform. Also right now, even for pubs and beer gardens, there's a license to restrict the number of people that can smoke outdoors.
Well done UK!
I think cigarettes should be put behind a prescription wall. If you are addicted, a doctor can help you quit. In the mean time, they can make sure you keep having the nicotine delivery system you're used to.
And then what about everything outside of that ridiculous context? Arrest people for possession of a plant? That's always been a good idea.
Tobacco is important to people. If you ban it, there will be a black market. Especially for something like a plant that can simply be grown.
Ban the sale of it. That's it. You want to cultivate it yourself, no problem. Share it with friends and family, OK. Just no more industrialized tobacco.
There will be a black market. So what? The problem isn't that people are using it. The problem is ubiquity. It's readily available everywhere. A black market isn't nearly as ubiquitous as selling it in every shop across the country.
Sounds excellent for the vape market. Just make it so only natural tobacco is legal and at the same age in which you can be drafted in the UK.