UK to permanently ban future generations from buying cigarettes

DeveloperOne

Censorship and restrictions for regular people.

allears

I totally agree that tobacco is a harmful substance. I'm not sure if I agree that a government should try to legislate citizens' habits.

stevenalowe

I cannot fathom the twists of logic necessary to justify such a specific and arbitrary prohibition

Muromec

It's an interesting experiment and we have all the time we need to see the results.

TheChaplain

I mean drugs are also banned, and how does that work out?

wlkr

Somewhat related HN discussions from a while back when New Zealand sought to do the same [1] [2]. Worth noting that it was later scrapped [3]. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33970717 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33967454 [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/new-zealand-sm...

pkulak

Wow, lots of libertarian absolutists up this morning. Guys, that's all well and good as a philosophy, but you need to integrate your views into the world around you too. When you live in a society that has _decided_ to collectively shoulder health care costs, and assume responsibility for everyone's health, you also may need some ground rules. I know it sucks, because _you_ may have just been born there and you don't really have a choice in what society you live, so that means care needs to be taken, but it doesn't mean there can never be any cost-of-entry.

BLKNSLVR

... and nothing of value was lost.

threepts

They also permanently banned coke,meth and other drugs since the inception of law, guess how that turned out? "The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 8.7% of people aged 16 to 59 years (around 2.9 million people) reported using any drug in the last 12 months for the year ending (YE) March 2025; there was no statistically significant change compared with YE March 2024" I believe limiting people's liberty is an ineffective option opposed to education.

tt24

This is the logical conclusion when you socialize healthcare. If you’re pro NHS / single payer, you *must* support this. As well as banning drugs, sugar, extreme sports, unprotected sex, and other high risk behavior. Anything short of this just doesn’t make sense.

mellosouls

The article here just links to the BBC report that was discussed here at the time: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed (172 points, 413 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47847240

baggy_trough

Entirely absurd and unacceptable, like so much coming out of the UK these days.

shevy-java

I never smoked in my life so one would assume I would be in favour of this. The health data is clear. At the same time I can not stand governments constantly interfering into regular people's life. I think at some point there has to put a stop to this - the idea that governments can control people like little slaves is just outrageous, even if the alleged use case is logically compelling or appears to be that way. By the same token governments can say "you can only use the internet if you ID". Also, as some point out this is "liberty" - well, I don't see how a restriction can be about "liberty" at all. It is the opposite of it; having a use case that seems logical still does not make a strategy about it good.

trebligdivad

It's going to make for an interesting future age verification problem; For a few years it'll be easy, because it's still only going to be asking people under say 25 for proof; but then in a few decades it's going to be people trying to figure out if there customer is over 40 say.

keybored

I get the apparent logic of phasing cigarettes into unlawfulness over decades. But considering this is so one-sided in terms of curtailing liberty for one generation,[1] it would have been interesting if they also got a privilege that us oldies are cut off from. Just as a perk to offset things. But whatever could that be? Twenty-year 5% discount on vegetables? [1] But this youngest generation also gets the privilege of never having easy access to cigarettes.

ChrisArchitect

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47847240

ikidd

Cowardly way to legislate.