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
  • greyfrog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

    Of course you can. Over time fewer and fewer people will smoke.

    The number of smokers have been going down for a long time now.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        6 days ago

        Personal freedom to pollute the bloodstream of a child before it is born, personal freedom to cause lung disease in people who have to live around smokers.

        Banning drunk driving is another attack on personal freedoms?

      • vanitasvanitatum@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 days ago

        Where’s my personal freedom as a non smoker?

        Because obviously, most smokers don’t give a two sh*ts about other people

        • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          6 days ago

          No one is making it illegal to be a non smoker, and banning some people from purchasing it doesn’t stop people from smoking around you. So congrats you gained nothing and lost nothing but a freedom.

          • shani66@ani.socialEnglish
            0·
            6 days ago

            How? Drunk driving presents a clear and present danger, someone smoking on the roof or in their yard or in dinner alley isn’t a threat to anyone.

        • shani66@ani.socialEnglish
          0·
          6 days ago

          From what I’ve heard, it absolutely isn’t. The uk is just as authoritarian and backwards, the only thing it has doing for it is a lack of weapons (apparently to an absurd extent).

          • GMac@feddit.orgEnglish
            0·
            5 days ago

            UK based here. sorry to tell you that your sources of information are really poor.

    • 3abas@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      6 days ago

      Because of awareness, social stigma, and government bans on tobacco propaganda advertising, not government sales bans.

      Look at the middle east and south asia, smoking is bigger than ever, it’s like the US in 60s, but worse.

      If people want to smoke, government bans won’t stop them. Yes, being easy and legal to get makes more people likely to get it, but you won’t achieve zero smoking by banning it, you’ll just increase black market sales.

      Is the illegal sale and organized crime that comes with it worth the reduction of legal consumers?