They would do anything but nationalise big tabacco. Nobody's speaking about how natural tabacco is neither as harmful nor addictive as the shit they're selling. But we gotta let them milk addicts a little more, am I right?
this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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Going to get down voted to hell and back for this I expect, but hey, different opinions generate discussion right?
This is good legislation for the environment, for non-smokers, for the NHS, and has zero negative impact on smokers. The ONLY parties I see really hurt by this are tobacco companies, since retailers make minimal margins on tobacco.
The constant use of the word freedom in the thread comments just seems odd to me. This isn't a question of freedom, and the comments mostly seem to ignore the paradox of tolerance as it applies to antisocial activity. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance. Individual freedoms have limits and must end at the boundary of another persons personal space and freedoms. That's why smoking is banned in confined public places.
Its all very well to say tax the shit out of it and fund the NHS, but that will feel pretty shit when your parent/partner/child has to wait for an operation because the queue is full of smokers who are entitled to that spot by having paid for it. Which also veers dangerously close to creating paid tracks within the public national health service.
I think there's a (probably) small subset of under-18s who are already addicted to nicotine who now have a lifelong issue of obtaining it legally, which I don't see addressed in the article. Imagine being 45 and needing a fake ID saying you're 47 so you can buy ciggies.
Most shops in the UK selling booze already operate a policy of asking for ID from anyone who they think looks under 25, even though the legislation is 18.
Likely as not they'll roll that policy on to cigarettes (in the few rare places that don't already) and that would mean the subset you're speaking about would have to be firmly addicted by the age of 11. At that point, I think this is not so much a tobacco problem, as a child welfare and protection issue and we have social care and protections that should already be addressing those cases.
I don't see anyone in that frame getting to middle age and ID for ciggies ranking in the top 10 of problems in their life.
By that same logic most food should be illegal
There already is a lot of illegal food.
Illegal for food manufacturers inject your food with rat poison, illegal for them to pump your meat full of chlorine, illegal for them to sprinkle powdered arsenic all over your snacks for flavor, illegal to put snake venom in your food, illegal for them to put heroin in your food, they can't put just a bit of ketamine on you lunch, they can't put coke or meth in your soda.
How is this different?
Not only that. It's not legally easy to offer food containing e.g. insects or sawdust.
I read about a company that were selling cookies with sawdust in them as diet products. They put "Contains sawdust to reduce calories" right on the front of the packaging and were advertising it, so a customer would not be misled at all. But it was illegal for them to sell it.
You might need to explain that one a bit for me.
We have a lot of food regulation, sometimes to enforce quality (e.g. no chlorinated chicken), in other cases to encourage better public health (e.g. higher rates of tax on high sugar drinks).
What do you think my statements would make illegal?
This is a stupid decision. Prohibition has never worked. Instead there will be more illegal, unsafe and unregulated cigarettes that the newer generations will smoke which will be more harmful while at the same time losing tax revenues and an increase in policing costs.
A better solution will be just to tax the shit out of these products and fund healthcare with it.
I mean, prohibition of firearms works fairly well.
Taxing the shit out of it also results in a large black market and disproportionately affects low income households.
With higher taxes on tobacco products, the black markets will be much less accessed as there will by 2 modes of supplies. If I as a smoker know I get better quality of cigarettes with the tax, i will opt for that and the government would get to earn a revenue from those who are killing themselves.
Low income households often skimp on quality first.
I think people should be allowed to harm themselves with drugs of they want. Maybe I’m a radical.
Not as long as healthcare is a public cost.
The luxury of growing old is even costlier. Should we just withdraw old age treatment, or go full Logan's Run?
Terrible argument
Is it? You do seem to be advocating for punishment of addicts. If not, would you care to expand on what you were getting at?
Can I also regulate what you eat and how much you exercise, how much booze and wine, etc? Or have we decided freedom and intellectual consistency were constructs of the 20th century?
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We all know that banning drugs means that people will stop using them. Or so.
Is authoritarianism just in the blood of brit-bongers or what?
It's not at all and, genuinely, from my own lived experience, I can assure you that this hysterical BS about how we Brits live in terror from our authoritarian government is utter nonsense.
I smoked (and occasionally still do, but usually vape). If I can stop my kids from starting this insane habit then all the better. It's cost me thousands, and fucked up my health and I have no issue with them banning it for the greater good, even though I do enjoy a ciggie.
All the other hysterical bluster you're being fed is a product of your own media, invariably owned by right-wing fuckers with a vested interest in painting the UK (In particular Labour) as some sort of communist, authoritarian regime.
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