Smoking age limit could be raised
The minimum age for buying tobacco in Britain could be raised from 16 to 18. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the move, if adopted, would bring buying tobacco into line with the current minimum age limit for purchasing alcohol. Smokers' lobby group FOREST said they did not object to a rise "in principle".
"Smoking should be seen as an adult activity," FOREST director Simon Clark said. "Anything that can discourage children from smoking has to be a good thing. The problem is implementation. It would be one of those laws that would be difficult to enforce. You could have sex at 16 but not a fag afterwards."
Source: The Observer (4 December 2005)
posted by Simon Clark @ 08:33
1 comments
1 Comments:
This is really daft and once again we have the knee jerk reaction of a government less able to think clearly as each day goes by.
Behind the government's move are the tobacco control lobbyists whose zealous fervour drives them to advocate measures which are completely inconstructive, although this is of little account to this group of individuals who are bent on a holy crusade to eliminate smoking at any price.
And indeed, preventing people from legally purchasing tobacco products under the age of 18 is at any price and for the following reasons:
1) If anything is guaranteed to glamorise smoking for more and more young people, this will do it as this will give it a cachet it never had previously; and
2) it will drive more young people to purchase their cigarettes on the black market, thus not only criminalising them, but also forcing them to mix with crimminals.
Mmm, all in all, a lovely move I don't think!
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