Planned law: Great Britain wants to ban cigarettes

Anyone under 16 today should never be able to legally buy cigarettes: the minimum age for tobacco in Great Britain is set to rise every year in the future. The ruling party in particular is discussing this very controversially.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill liked to appear casual with a cigar. And for Churchill’s self-proclaimed grandson in spirit, ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, it is total madness that Churchill’s Conservative Party of all people wants to ban cigars.

But the British House of Commons voted by a large majority in the second reading for a law that would ban future generations from buying tobacco products. The law still has to clear several parliamentary hurdles, but passage seems likely.

Anyone who is 15 or younger today should never be able to legally buy cigarettes

Only twelve percent of Brits regularly smoke cigarettes. High prices and indoor smoking bans have caused tobacco consumption to continue to decline. Nevertheless, the effects of smoking are considered the number one cause of death in Great Britain and are estimated to cost the British health service and the economy more than 20 billion euros annually.

The minimum age for buying cigarettes is 18, but an estimated 100,000 younger people smoke regularly. The conservative government now wants to “phase out” cigarettes: The law stipulates that the minimum age for buying tobacco should be increased by one year every year. Anyone who is 15 years old or younger today should never be allowed to buy cigarettes legally.

The path to addiction should be prevented, Health Minister Victoria Atkins explained in the parliamentary debate: “Addiction is not freedom. Nicotine addiction offers those affected no choice,” she said. Most would start smoking at a young age. And three-quarters would look back and say they wish they had never started.

Liz Truss calls law ‘un-conservative’

The Labor opposition supports the bill. The faction requirement was lifted for the vote. And so during the debate in the House of Commons it was primarily Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s critics from his own ranks who railed against his law.

Short-term Prime Minister Liz Truss called it “un-conservative”: “The establishment, united in a cross-party consensus in this Parliament today, believes it can make better decisions for the people than the people themselves can.”

Critics, especially from within the company’s own ranks Governing party

In the end, around half of Conservative MPs voted against their prime minister’s law or abstained. In addition to the danger of the “nanny state”, which increasingly wants to dictate more to people, there were also warnings that a black market would emerge and that the authorities would not be able to enforce the bans.

Instead, people should be dissuaded from smoking through education and higher prices. The bill also proposes to make e-cigarettes less attractive to young people. They wanted to ensure that vaping remained available to people who wanted to quit real cigarettes because they were much more dangerous, said the government’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, on the BBC. “But sweet flavors or bright packaging for vapes should be limited to make them less attractive to children.”

In another law, disposable e-cigarettes should be banned in principle. Polls show that 60 percent of Brits support anti-smoking measures. But young people on the street are skeptical as to whether neutral packaging is of any use. “Vaping is really popular among young people right now. Everyone does it,” they say – and ask: “Isn’t smoking already banned for young people – and people still smoke?”