Exclusive: Sources say law could gradually increase smoking age to ultimately prevent sales to people born after certain year

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/479123

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.

  • thehatfox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    142·
    1 year ago

    Because prohibition has been such a great success for other drugs.

    The New Zealand law is ridiculous and not something we should be emulating. Smoking is already steadily declining in the UK, we should be sticking with the current approach with the view that smoking can die a natural death.

    • HipPriest@kbin.social
      9·
      1 year ago

      This is why, as an adult vaper, I get slightly fed up of all the anti-vape news stories. Obviously I am heavily against kids using them, and I also think the disposable ones are environmentally unfriendly to say the least.

      But they’re a major asset in getting people off the cigs as well and it would be good to remember that once in a while. It’s cheaper. It’s healthier - a low bar but you can tell the difference in days after switching.

      To my mind you can’t have it both ways. It’s no coincidence that smoking rates have fallen further at the same time that vape shops have popped up everywhere like a rash - they were falling anyway but it’s sped things up a lot. (Incidentally my guess is it’s not high street vape shops selling to kids but the same garages, newsagents etc that would have sold them fags in the past but that’s just anecdotal evidence and conjecture).

      I don’t agree with bans. I also don’t think putting little pictures of tumours on a fag packet ever stopped me lighting up once. What I do like it’s seeing politicians finally mentioning ‘oh yeah, by the way, smoking isn’t very good for you either’ after all this moral panic about vaping

      (I am ranting a bit because I’m slightly drunk but I have been thinking this a lot this week)

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        (Incidentally my guess is it’s not high street vape shops selling to kids but the same garages, newsagents etc that would have sold them fags in the past but that’s just anecdotal evidence and conjecture).

        Indeed. Let’s not forget that, back in the day, they’re the ones that sold “loosies” to school kids.

  • Overzeetop@beehaw.orgEnglish
    82·
    1 year ago

    Skip smoking and vape limits. Outlaw nicotine and other addictive synthetic nicotine-like compounds. For gods sake - you’re not allowed to buy acetaminophen or pseudoephedrine in bulk in the UK.

    Stop allowing the sale of the addictive drug and a good deal of the problem will correct itself.

  • HipPriest@kbin.social
    61·
    1 year ago

    I like how they focused on vapes first and then looked at smoking laws…

    Have to say it though I’d agree with doing something pro-active anti-smoking, but he can say any old thing knowing he won’t have to follow through on it now.

  • fruitleatherpostcard@lemm.eeEnglish
    62·
    1 year ago

    The entire tobacco industry should be dissolved and the major shareholders have every cent of their profits removed

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Labour has previously said it was consulting on phasing out cigarette sales over time for younger people in a similar way to New Zealand, with the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, saying in January he wanted to find out whether there was an “appetite for change” in the country.

    In relation to Sunak’s net zero rowback and confusion over his education policies, Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said the government was creating instability in the country that was exacerbating an “economic bin-fire” under the Tories.

    “At a time when people and businesses are crying out for stability, Rishi Sunak has poured fuel on the Tories’ economic bin-fire in a desperate bid to keep Liz Truss and her fellow arsonists happy,” he told the Guardian.

    Sunak is also under pressure over the HS2 high-speed rail line, with talks being held over whether to cut the Birmingham to Manchester arm of the project in a move that would infuriate northern Tories and further risk seats won under Boris Johnson in 2019.

    However, the shift in the net zero agenda, drawn up under the guidance of the electoral strategist Isaac Levido, as well as the search for dividing lines in the areas of welfare and crime, suggest the policy changes are also highly political.

    Asked about the policy of a New Zealand style-smoking ban, a government spokesperson said: “Smoking is a deadly habit – it kills tens of thousands of people each year and places a huge burden on the NHS and the economy.

    The original article contains 888 words, the summary contains 251 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • PhoenixzEnglish
    53·
    1 year ago

    An outright bad probably won’t work. Just keep increasing taxes on cigarettes every year until it’s such a luxury item that noone can afford to even try them

    • gerdesj@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I gave up about 5.5 years ago after 30 odd years of pretty heavy tabbing. Fags costed about £10.50 for 20 L&B back then and no doubt the beer accumulator model has raised that to at least £13 by now.

      Price was not my primary reason for giving up but I can see how it will help. When I started I could buy 10 packs duty free for £5 and smoke on the plane. The UK old 10p (which was basically a two shilling coin rebadged as 10p) was about the same size as a German 1DM piece. DM - Deutsch Mark. Good enough to fool the removed dispensers in West Germany, back in the day. At the time (mid '80s) there was roughly 4DM to £1 and a pack was about DM2.50 from a street vending machine.

      As well as price, we need to realise that nicotine is not the only addictive thing in a ciggie. If it was, then patches, gum etc would just work. They don’t really work very well on their own and you can’t shift the blame onto habit either. I don’t think that nicotine is particularly addictive at all.

      Giving up is hard, really hard. It needs will power. When I started giving up I was wheezing rather badly and had a very persistent cough that lasted for about nine months to the point that even I realised I had to do something.

      I stopped at around 17:00 one friday evening and had a very long lie in on sat morning. That got me half a day. I hung on until saturday evening and went to bed. I now had managed a day. Another long lie in on sunday. Hang on in there and get to monday. Now I have two days. Then I managed a week, then two weeks, then a month, then two months, three months, half a year, a year.

      After a few days I realized I could perhaps do this. I don’t exactly know why I decided to come up with a “mantra” that I would say to myself whenever I craved a ciggie but it really helped. “I don’t want to smell and I don’t want to die” was what I settled on and it really worked for me. Even a smoker knows really how bad they smell and the other wish is a bit obvious!

      After about a week my sense of smell and taste went berserk! I could smell people entering a room which was a bit disconcerting. I recall it being similar to when I finally caved in and got some specs sorted out for my eyes. It has calmed down since to “normal”.

      If you want to give up then you will need a strategy. I was weak willed enough to need a near death like experience to kick me into some form of action. Giving up fags is a horribly complicated affair and the “treatments” on offer are probably bollocks. I tried a vape and soon realised that it won’t help at all - I’d just replace smoking with … something else that doesn’t really cut it.

      I found that as soon as I said my mantra, the cravings really did vanish, for a few minutes, then hours, days. weeks etc. I also had some pretty odd dreams involving fags. Before I gave up, I never smoked in my dreams. I did have several dreams after giving up which involved smoking in some pretty bizarre ways!

      Finally: I saved roughly £3,500 per year at 2018 prices by not tabbing. It’s probably more like £4000-4500 now.

      Hmmm, this comment escalated somewhat 8)

      • gerdesj@lemmy.mlEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        “beer accumulator” - this is the euphemistic name for how the UK govt raises the tax year on year for alcohol and I think it is the same for fags.

      • FatLegTed@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        At the time (mid '80s) there was roughly 4DM to £1 and a pack was about DM2.50 from a street vending machine.

        I remember those machines whilst serving in Army in early 80s. German fags were terrible and had a wierd smell though.

      • PhoenixzEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Good for you! Love longer, be healthier, save lots of money, sounds like a win win win to me