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Smoking ban for people born after 2008 agreed as ‘landmark’ Bill clears Parliament
(www.independent.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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If they think this will actually do anything then they're horrendously fucking stupid.
And what's the plan in like 100 years after the previous generations die? Tobacco and nicotine just cease to exist, and there'll be no black markets at all?
Utterly brainless cunts. Then again, I guess you don't have to be elected or a Lord/Lady/Baroness etc by merit.
I don’t think we should be supporting carcinogenic substances known to promote lung cancer and heart disease, personally…
To be fair, that's not what their comment was trying to do. They were saying that it would make it worse.
True. With a lot of swearing andand not a lot of arguments though.
I expect actually it will have a profound effect on the number of people smoking. I remember when they banned smoking in public places, smoking declined rapidly since then.
Kids have been bypassing restrictions and purchasing cigarettes for years but the general decline is still happening.
I always attributed it to general education being the real mover. I think as the public became more educated we looked for solutions to help curb use and the decline was the leveling out once people were able to make a more informed decision.
Some folks will always choose to smoke knowing what it is and I think we have just moved closer to that number. Certainly advertising and exposure have a large role to play as well, I just feel as though it's a whole host of elements that have changed the usage rates.
I feel as though banning something makes certain demographics less likely to take it up but I feel like the measures we had in place already target that crowd. I think we are very close to the market cap on people we can sell abstinence to.
Just my thinking on it, the numbers might bare out different results. I just personally think illegality is not the major barrier to uptake that folks think it is. I would point to coke usage and how ubiquitous it is with young adults in the UK right now.
In the end I think making something illegal that is already on the decline is a misstep, let it fade out on its own rather than call attention to it. People get up in arms about change, a great way to make something popular is to tell folks they can't have it.
It does make the average person a little more marketable as ‘undesirable’. You can pay your taxes, try to live in society’s rules but god forbid you have to support criminals to get a cigarette. The black mirror social credit episode pops in my mind again.
I understand cigarettes are not heathy but there are better ways to support additions, these measures are a big brother take to undermine individuals.
Between this and other recent bans they are slowly removing the steam valves.
Did they ban nicotine or smoking? Won't nicotine in other forms that are legal outcompete illegal cigarettes?
I also think it's overblown though, bans in public spaces should be enough.
The article says "banned from purchasing tobacco products" and that the same smoking restrictions will now also apply for vaping. I don't think it mentioned nicotine specifically. I think it mentioned banning the sale of disposable vapes too but here goes my memory span, useless.
People are still allowed to smoke in private spaces like their homes, but the public spaces ban would now be extra. It's an interesting move, I don't smoke or live there but I see both the potential good and bad ramifications from this.
I live in the UK. At this point, most of the polite smokers have moved over to vapes. Those left are almost entirely rude wankers who don't care where their smoke goes and who it affects. The smoking ban came in because 1 smoker can affect dozens of unwilling people.
I have zero issues with vapes. The effect on others is quite minor, outside a few fog machines disguised as vapes.