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[–] 52 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'm sure this will work as intended.

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  • [–] 31 points 4 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months 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.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    No but a good cigar with a scotch or a coffee is always good. Occasionally.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 17 points 4 months ago*

    Smoking is already on a consistent, significant decline in the UK.

    Risking a black market (let's be clear actually - definitely causing one) hardly seems worth a possible increased rate of decline.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 14 points 4 months 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.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago

    Because Prohibition and the War on Drugs worked so well in the US, I guess?

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    Good 😊

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

    Yeah… Criminalizing shit always works…

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    What could go wrong when making laws depending on entire generations

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Tell everyone that they'll regret it at an early age

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  • [+] 1 point 4 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago)