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
  • shani66@ani.socialEnglish
    11·
    2 hours ago

    I neither smoke (tobacco) or work for a tobacco company, and legalizing drugs (objectively a good thing) doesn’t imply selling to kids. Just say you have an irrational hated of someone else doing something that doesn’t affect you.

    • JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.netEnglish
      1·
      54 minutes ago

      No, I think governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens against massive corporations using any and all psychological weapons they have at their disposal to harm people.

      Again, this proposal is not criminalizing possession or consumption, it is limiting selling. I am all for decriminalizing drugs, but that does not mean that mega corporations that sink literal hundreds of billions into manipulating people and exploiting them should have free reign.

      And tobacco affects the most people in the world besides alcohol lol. I know multiple people that have died directly from cigarettes and my mother in law will also likely die directly due to it. That is pretty much the most unlikely assumption to make.

      That also isn’t even getting into the damage to my own lungs caused by second hand smoke from people around me smoking and infecting an area without my consent. If someone goes around with a knife and starts cutting people up non-lethally, it doesn’t make it OK because they are also cutting themselves.