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.
  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    145·
    1 day ago

    The best way to make cigarettes cool to kids is to make them fully illegal, this is a nonsense law unless you are trying to increase the amount of kids smoking cigarettes.

    • Chemo@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      They already are illegal for kids. For them, nothing changes. Why would it be cooler for then? Is crack cooler then alcohol today?

  • SpaceScotsman@startrek.websiteEnglish
    162·
    2 days ago

    Some parts of this bill, increasing the places where vaping is not permitted in line with smoking, are very welcome.

    But bans of addictive substances only result in criminalising people who are addicted and putting them more at risk of harm, because now in addition to lung cancer they’ll have black market goons to deal with as well.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.orgEnglish
        221·
        2 days ago

        IDK if I’d bother with the black market to acquire cigarettes if they were already illegal when I turned 18. Not the most exciting drug.

        • Anivia@feddit.orgEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          So you’ve never seen an underage person smoke? Kids already ignore the law and get cigarettes from adults or stores that don’t bother checking their ID, so it’s not even a hypothetical, it’s just reality. Prohibition doesn’t work

          • rumschlumpel@feddit.orgEnglish
            13·
            1 day ago

            Consider that the UK is becoming more and more of a surveillance-state, though. I doubt that “store clerk ‘forgets’ to check for ID” is going to stay a thing.

            I’m not saying that a black market won’t exist, but it’s going to become more like buying “hard” illegal drugs is today, i.e. much harder than for drugs that are currently legal for all adults.

            • Anivia@feddit.orgEnglish
              41·
              1 day ago

              I think you have zero clue how easy it is for children to buy hard drugs

              • rumschlumpel@feddit.orgEnglish
                23·
                1 day ago

                I certainly never consciously met someone who would sell me illegal-for-adults drugs as a kid.

                I think you overestimate the willingness of most people to buy illegal drugs.

                • Anivia@feddit.orgEnglish
                  2·
                  16 hours ago

                  I certainly never consciously met someone who would sell me illegal-for-adults drugs as a kid.

                  Sorry to tell you this, but you weren’t one of the cool kids then. People either didn’t like you, or thought you were a snitch, if you’ve never at the very least been offered weed as a kid

        • user_name@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          2 days ago

          Don’t even need them to be fully illegal to have black market demand. Eric Garner was selling loose (untaxed) cigarettes when the state executed him on the street in 2014. There’ll be demand for any black market no matter how apparently trivial the prohibition or unappealing the product, especially if the product is addictive.

    • cadekat@pawb.socialEnglish
      151·
      2 days ago

      If I were to guess, it’s because a blanket ban would turn the people who actually go out and vote against you.

      • tomenzgg@midwest.socialEnglish
        10·
        2 days ago

        I’d’ve assumed the addiction factor. Forcing an addict to quit could cause stress that won’t be present for those who haven’t started, yet.

        But literally just a guess, on my part.

    • FiskFisk33@startrek.websiteEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Because people don’t like to be told what to do. Why create a black market when there is already a steep and steady decline?