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I can’t decide wether I like this, on one hand smoking is obviously bad, but on the other I wouldn’t want to be unable to if I wanted to. I think it would be better to make sure the public are educated on the subject so that people can make informed decisions for themselves rather than an outright ban on sale.
If it only affected the user, sure, but the reality of it is that the smoke contaminates everything around it.
I was in my 20's when I realised it's not normal to mop your walls every year, also made the connection that moving out reduced my migraines. I did not realise just how much I stank everywhere I went thanks to my mum's smoking, and coming back off holiday from smoke free relatives I felt my throat and eyes burn as I was settling back in at home.
My neighbours a few doors down sometimes smoke in the garden when the weather is nice, so I have to shut all my windows and retreat indoors if I want to keep breathing freely.
It's a lot better than it used to be, but it still restricts my comfort and quality of life if someone nearby decides they have the individual right to smoke.
I think people are idiots and need to be protected from themselves in some circumstances.
Realistically though this sort of thing isn’t going to stop that, it will just push it underground leading to it being unregulated.
You could argue that about any law. The majority of people aren't going to start smoking if its not easily available to them
That assumes that this idea would actually work. I doubt that it will actually be challenging to get hold of cigarettes after this goes into place, there will almost certainly be a lot of shops that will still sell them to people who are under the minimum age. For it to work properly I think there would have to be a lot of money spent on enforcing it. Alternatively though, one could argue that even that is better than not having any measures put in place.
Is there anyone left who doesn't already know that smoking is bad for you? Prohibition is dumb and doesn't work but it seems there isn't much left to be done in the education department. I think it's time we just let people make their own decisions and shut up about it. There's plenty of other perfectly legal things that people fuck up their health with. I'm not sure why we talk so much about this particular thing.
I mostly agree, but I would still appreciate more education, maybe more in areas like second hand smoke, so that smokers don’t impact everyone else with their decisions.
Barbeques are fine but spark up a cigarette in the garden and you have to worry about who's health you're harming? Daft.