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Smoking age should rise from 18, by one year every year - Rishi Sunak (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by zephyreks@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] Liu_fragezeichen@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I agree that smoking is bad for you, having quit myself - but the idea of outlawing a plant / prohibiting humans who just happened to be born in one specific part of the world from burning it and inhaling the produced smoke just goes against my views on ethics.

Instead, why don't we fix the real problems? How about getting rid of capitalism, and thus the profit incentive to sell addictive substances for a huge markup? How about we fix this broken society that keeps pushing more and more people towards drugs such as nicotine, the tiny escape, and the little bit of stress relief they provide?

Drugs, from cigarettes to meth, are not the problem..

They're just a symptom.

The war on drugs is nothing more than an effort to sweep the real problems under the rug, and nothing less than coordinated violence targeted at people who are already suffering.

Fuck this.

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[-] Occamsrazer 3 points 1 year ago

I hate smoking stock photos. Clearly she has never smoked in her life.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

This better not apply to vaping.

I vaped for a few years and then stopped. Quitting was pretty damn easy imo

[-] nogooduser@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

They want to look at how vaping is being marketed to kids to reduce the number starting to vape but they’re not changing the age restrictions as far as I know.

[-] Fisch@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Hopefully this will lead to them just using vapes instead of cigarettes and not them trying to illegally get cigarettes. I'm still on the fence on whether I think this law is a good idea in general or not but allowing them to still buy vapes / vape liquid is definitely the right decision IMO.

[-] HipPriest@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

They're doing a separate crusade against disposable vapes. If they're going after smoking I'd imagine they'd be trying to encourage people to vape to quit.

It's all hypothetical because it's highly unlikely he'll still be in power to put this plan in to action come the next general election

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[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Speaking at the Conservative party conference, Mr Sunak said he believed it was the right step to tackle the leading cause of preventable ill-health.

"Because without a significant change, thousands of children will start smoking in the coming years and have their lives cut short."

But Mr Sunak has decided to throw his backing behind it as a way of meeting the government's ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030 - defined as less than 5% of the population smoking.

The proposal on raising the age of sale of cigarettes is similar to laws being introduced in New Zealand, where buying tobacco products will remain banned for anyone born after 2008.

Mr Sunak also said the government would consider restricting the sale of disposable vapes and look at flavourings and packaging of the devices, to tackle the rising rates of children using them.

"If implemented, the prime minister will deserve great credit for putting the health of UK citizens ahead of the interests of the tobacco lobby."

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