The lifetime ban on cigarettes for all those born after 2009, a liberticidal law ?

A bill is being studied in the United Kingdom to ban à life the sale of cigarettes to young people born after 2009 and under the age of fifteen today.

According to the World Health Organization, one billion people on the planet smoke. Tobacco remains the leading cause of mortality preventable in the world. One person dies every four seconds à because of cigarettes. For several years now, anti-smoking measures have intensified. Promotion of electronic cigarettes, rise in package prices, the proportion of smokers is increasing. the decline.

However, the United Kingdom wants to go even further. The deputies voted this Tuesday, April 16 in favor of a bill in this direction. Their objective: to be the first country to create a new generation without tobacco. Thus, in this bill, young people born after 2009, under the age of fifteen today, would never see themselves sold there. Also cigarettes. In the event of final adoption of the text, cigarettes will be prohibited in the country. the sale &agrav; life for young people of the new generation. The text also plans to fight against vaping with restrictions on the flavors of electronic cigarettes and changes to packaging to make them less attractive.

The Minister of Health&eac; sees in this bill a real ambition to protect future generations. "It is our responsibility, our duty, to protect “to lead the next generation,” said Victoria Atkins, " the opening of the debates Westminster, Tuesday afternoon, reported the Huffpost. According to the government, four out of five smokers who started smoking Tobacco use before the age of twenty in the United Kingdom remains addicted throughout their lives. It would therefore be preferable for young people to never start so as not to take the risk of not being able to stop. 

Attack on freedoms, development of the market black, the opposition multiplies the counter-arguments

Is such a measure really applicable and effective ? In New Zealand, a similar attempt was a failure. A law passed in 2022 prohibiting the sale of cigarettes everyone born after 2008 was eventually killed. abandoned in 2023. In addition, the opposition denounces a bill going to against individual freedoms. Liz Truss, former head of government, declared: "We are a free country . We shouldn't be the ones telling people not to smoke. 

Another opposition argument that emerges: the risk of creating a significant market black. As is the case with drugs, illegal sales networks could develop to circulate cigarettes among young people. As reported by Le Point, this is notably the point of view of Simon Clarke, MPé conservative, who also believes that this bill will no longer make sense in a few years. "If the law is passed, it will not last more than a decade in its current form, because in ten years people will realize " ;agrave; how stupid it is to ask à people aged 29 or 30 years old their identity card to differentiate their &age", explainedé the deputy. This can also pose a problem in families where there is a problem. some will be allowed to buy cigarettes and others not.