Prohibition on installments
Young Brits will never be able to smoke legally in the future
October 4, 2023, 3:36 p.m
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England should be completely smoke-free by 2030 – Sunak’s government is failing to achieve this political goal. But a step-by-step plan is intended to make it impossible for young people to ever legally obtain cigarettes: every year the age limit for buying tobacco is to be raised by another year.
Great Britain wants to ban smoking for future generations and follow the example of New Zealand with a strict anti-tobacco policy. He proposes to increase the age limit for buying tobacco by one year a year from the current 18, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said at the annual meeting of his Conservative Party in Manchester. The aim is that a 14-year-old can never legally buy a cigarette and that this generation can grow up smoke-free.
The ability of young people to obtain e-cigarettes should also be severely restricted, said Sunak. Recently, doctors have increasingly warned against the spread of so-called vapes among minors. Tens of thousands of people die every year because of their addiction to nicotine, the Prime Minister said. Damage caused by smoking would also place an enormous burden on the NHS and the economy.
England, the largest part of Britain, wants to be smoke-free by 2030. However, according to studies, the goal will be missed by several years. Most recently, the British government, which is responsible for England, announced, among other things, a pilot project in which e-cigarettes would be made available free of charge to one million smokers. At the turn of the year, New Zealand enshrined in law that anyone born since January 1, 2009 could never buy tobacco in their lives. This includes raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes by one year every year from 2027.