Smoking ban - brilliant news!! 👏

[JessLou80]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/smoking-ban-uk-tobacco-vapes-bill-b2961734.html

Fabulous news about smoking ban for people born after 2008! Hopefully a complete ban for everyone one day - and get rid of those vile vapes!

I don’t get why people would want to even put put those things near their bodies - ugh gross!

Yeah they are very common unfortunately - my DC get the school bus and there are absolutely loads of kids as young as 11 and 12 vaping on the school bus - the drivers daren’t say anything to them because they will just get a mouthful of abuse

Is it practical for a section of the population to be unable to do something by age?

I don't know it just seems weird to me

So would you say you think the law is fine as is, or do you think they should just go the whole hog and ban it outright, for everyone?

It really doesn’t sit right with me that a person can be forever banned from buying a product that is sold legally, simply because of their date of birth.

It makes little sense to me, can't say it bothers me, it just seems strange that your classmate born 31/12/08 can smoke and you, born 1/1/09 can't, ever.

Wonder if they'll do it for unhealthy food, driving etc. Imagine the arrests in a few decades:
"Sorry officer, I just took a ciggy from my mate who is one day older than me..." "No! It is perfectly ok for a 54 year old to do that, but you are one day under that age! So it's wrong!"
"OK, but he's been doing it since he was 18, and why was it ok for him to smoke yesterday, when he was the exact age I am now?"

Now outlawing it for everyone-fair enough.

What’s next, alcohol? Lottery tickets? It’s like something from an Orwell novel.

Just ban smoking and vaping completely for everyone!!

I can't see it working. Also the alcohol pricing going up to 9 quid a pint (possibly). At this rate it will be moonshine and black market vapes. 😱. Thank fuck for my gin stash eh! If the co2 runs out im snookered for tonic. Oh well, cooncil juice it will have to be i sippose. 🫢🤪

And processed food, alcohol etc?

It's like alcohol

People will just find a way to make it
I actually heard that they had a problem with illegal cigarettes a lot on the continent presuming because they're cheaper they're cut with lots of weird stuff

I just find it really weird that potentially kids in the same school year one of them will be allowed to smoke and one of them won't
I don't know how much kids smoke these days, though

giving a freedom to people in one age group and not the other - imagine applying with law to alcohol

Agree, and I am a smoker. But if it was banned I would just have to get over it. And, in the end. ..it would be better for me.

Think vapes should be banned outright. Have tried them and they make me cough like crazy, more than cigs .makes me think they're worse ...?

There's actually loads of illegal cigarettes in the uk now and quite easily to buy in the local shops.

Out of genuine interest, do you think that the current bans on individuals’ activities (various drugs, smoking restrictions indoors & in cars with children etc) are about right but shouldn’t go any further. Or do you think bans already go too far and some things should be legalised?
And, if you do think current bans are about right, would you nevertheless make vaping more like smoking by adding it to the rules around not doing it in cars with children, outside schools etc, as this bill does?

@Terrribletwos oh I didn't know that
Do people go in and ask for them and they're cheaper or something?

I only know about the Europe thing as a friend in Spain told us

Current law is fine.

Adults should be free to do as they choose and deal with the consequences. Otherwise what next? Check your BMI if you want to buy chocolate?

An adult should be able to smoke if they want. I haven’t smoked for years and never would again but it seems bizarre that there will be people who aren’t allowed to smoke ever, when everyone else cracks on.

Vapes are sadly more marketed to children with the flavours etc - a bit like when alcopops came out.

Oh, they definitely do go in and ask. It's been a well known thing for years.

I disagree. We as society need to set thresholds in what we ban. They shouldn’t be arbitrary or taste-based.

Vapes are hugely less harmful than cigarettes (royal college of physicians says 5% of the harm of smoking).

They are hugely less harmful than alcohol.

The argument on this thread seems to be that they are “vile”, “gross”, “wouldn’t put it my body”.

Plenty of people enjoy putting things in their body that I would put in mine. Plenty of people enjoy things I find gross. We can’t ban on those grounds if we want to live in a liberal democracy.

And applying the ban only to some citizens, not because they are at greater harm (it’s a cohort, not an age group) but because they aren’t going to make a fuss about it, is wrong too.

I mean this policy was obvious to me when I was a teen in the 90s. Why it has taken 30 or 40 years to actually deal with is beyond me.

That said, anyone born 2008 and prior is allowed to buy cigs for their lifetime presumably. Many people born in 2008 are still 17 and could live for another 90 years to buy cigs.

And. Obviously cheaper.

I don’t really care what other people put in their bodies, but I was in the street today and got a face full of smoke. So it’s not just their bodies they’re putting it in.

We're specifically talking about cigarettes tho..

Good. Long overdue.

Next job : Serious sugar & junk food taxes. The government should announce that the tax on UPF should increase & escalate year on year until after a decade, a large bar of chocolate (or its equivalent in terms of sugar & fat) costs the same as a bottle of whisky.

Sounds radical, but it worked for tobacco and obesity is just as much of a public health crisis as smoking ever was.

I think people should be educated about the dangers and be able to decide for themselves.

In some ways we are behind other countries regarding drugs, we could be making them legal and taxing them because the problem isn’t going away just because the law prohibits it.

A cut off date of birth is ridiculous and who’s going to be left to police it yet again, retail staff that sell the products.

I also don’t understand why just tobacco and not other harmful substances, maybe they’ll come for alcohol next, who knows?