aside from the issue of 'prohibition still doesn't work', i don't think giving kids or "underage" adults criminal charges for cigarettes is making anything better for anyone
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Smoking age is specifically the ability to purchase. There are no criminal/civil charges for underage smoking. The crimes are specifically 1) selling to minors 2) buying for minors.
TL;DR: No one goes/will go to jail for underage smoking.
Sunak should start publicly smoking all the time, then it will be the lamest thing and teen smoking will crater.
....how do 14 year olds get smokes now?
Making it illegal to buy at certain ages has never worked...banning them outright also won't work. You cannot stop people from doing things, no matter how many words you put on paper.
Has the war on drugs not been a thought to these people? It is useless and does nothing.
No no no, minimum age should increase by 360 days every year, that way people can still have hope that some day they'll be able to smoke. Staying true to how capitalism works.
New Zealand has done this
Man the fuck up and outlaw it for everyone instead of this sneaky prohibition that only affect people that can't vote yet. It's such a cowardly, disingenuous way of doing it.
Prohibition never works, the best bet is to keep it legal and make it as inconvenient as possible like: raising taxes on tobacco, make it illegal to smoke outside of dedicated zones (Quebec has done it I believe), fine people who litter their cigarette butts (hard to implement but, it might deter a large majority from doing it), keep helping smokers to quit and keep raising awareness for younger people.
This is the way. There are so few places to smoke in BC that I pretty much only ever see people doing it 5 metres from a bus stop.
They are so expensive that the few people that still do it smoke maybe a pack a week.
We even banned the sale of no-nic vape juice because they were becoming a gateway to nicotine addiction for teenagers.
This method stops current smokers from being criminalised.
If you ban it like prohibition, you will instantaneously create a black market. Continually increasing the age you can buy cigarettes is easier. Everyone that this effects will not have the option to legally create a cigarette habit/addiction.
A straight up outlawing would have the maximum effect. But it would be costly to enforce, whilst increasing overall criminal activity.
lame. create a legal path to execute the tobacco company execs instead.
If this is the only effort, it's weak. Better to also (or instead) tax each box by another 20 pounds. Kids don't have that money. They'll find other things to do.
Taxation is a tool but it also creates inequality where rich people are able to smoke and poor people can't. That situation risks making tobacco a signifier of wealth - an aspirational good like an expensive handbag.
It's already prohibitively taxed to be around £12-15 for a 20 pack. There are 4 corner stores within a 5 minute walk of my house that do them under the counter for a fiver, and you can bet they don't care about IDs either
I much prefer to see kids vaping.
It's much harder to be intimidated by a gang of 10 youths in balaclavas when they smell like a pack of Fruit Salads.
NZ already did this and it is the most cowardly way to avoid political blowback.
There's plenty of other options for minimising smoking. A more altruistic way is by lifting people out of poverty and tackling social disintegration, since smokers are overwhelmingly poor and disaffected.
As UK economy continues to crumble, Rishi is focusing on the real issues.
Cool, when does the minimum age for joining the military start to raise by one year every year?
“We operate a Check-74 policy. If you are lucky enough to look younger than 70, we will ask for ID when buying cigarettes”
Rishi is just jealous that they aren't one of the cool kids
https://www.theonion.com/secondhand-smoke-linked-to-secondhand-coolness-1819564071
Back in my day we used to smoke up hill both ways in the rain and snow.
Raising legal age
not be able to buy cigarettes
French people in shamble
should rise from 18, by one year every year
If that truly continued every year, that means someone too young to legally smoke could eventually die of old age when the legal smoking age is, say, 90 and they're 89.
EDIT: I was just tripping out at the idea of "you must be 90 years old to buy this" signs at the supermarket. Surreal image.
Yep, the idea is to prevent new kids from getting addicted to this awful shit without hurting people who are already addicted.
So he's nicking what newzeland did ok cool something that he's not going to profit from for a change atleast
Not a smoker or wannabe one but if someone is just one year behind in their age, they'll never be able to legally smoke with this setup.
I believe that's the intention yes.