this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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  • 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
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[–] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (3 children)

You can make every single argument you used for unhealthy eating. Especially since its the leading cause of death in the United States yet no one is talking about banning oreos. Regulate the industry and inform the population to make better choices but a ban just a uncalculated reaction. We've literally seen it with prohibition and the drug war and it ultimately doesn't work. You can't just say that the black market won't be as costly because you have no idea what will actually happen. Global smoking trends have been going down. Let's just continue to do what has been proven to work.

Also denying ppl healthcare based on their bad health habits is facist...

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Exactly. Following that logic, joggers should be barred from getting synthetic knees in later life.

This is all ideal rhetoric for some more neoliberal budget cuts to healthcare systems.

[–] GMac@feddit.org 0 points 2 days ago

You forget we are not talking about the USA here. The article is about the UK where we already have a lot more food regulation than you do in the USA.
If you really want to go down the road of things proven to work, maybe start within the USA and introduce the effective firearms legislation and regulations that most of the civilised world has proven reduces per capita gun deaths and almost entirely negates mass murder of schoolchildren.

[–] stickly@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago

They're not even close to comparable as far as health crisis go. People need to eat; nobody needs to smoke. It's possible to eat oreos without taking years off your life. Hell, it's possible to have a diet entirely of oreos with some nutrition supplements. You won't die from second hand oreos.

a ban just a uncalculated reaction

I'd believe this argument 80 years ago when big tobacco was still hiding evidence but not today. The calculations are right there, millions of lives being thrown away and trillions of dollars burned (in spite of massive progress!) while we drag our feet and push back on something as simple as a generation purchase ban.

We've literally seen it with prohibition

Prohibition was a naive attempt with no thought put toward implementation. It was backed largely by appeals to morality and sin instead of strong public health research. And even in spite of that, it did succeed in cutting alcohol consumption.

A whole generation had dramatically lower rates of alcohol use and it took until the 1970s for per-capita consumption to match the pre-prohibition peak. There's a lot we can learn about public health policy from Prohibition but people only focus on bootleggers and gangsters.

[...] and the drug war

Woof that's certainly one to unwrap. The war on drugs was a failure as a public health policy but wildly successful as a tool for creating a slave class and an imperial casus belli. Even a glance at policies that restricted drug research and criminalized drug use shows that public health was a fig leaf. And if you're using drug proliferation as justification for ulterior power consolidation then eliminating drug use is obviously counter productive. I don't think it bears much weight in these conversations.

Also denying ppl healthcare based on their bad health habits is facist...

Which is my point. I'm also not saying that other methods like education, sin taxes or tobacco alternatives are a waste of time. Public health problems always have to be fought on multiple fronts. But at some point you have to decide how much time and effort you're going to spend tiptoeing around vice industries. A generation purchase ban is simple and gradual; and there's no evidence that it won't work unless you make oblique comparisons to other failed/mixed public health efforts.