Last night Parliament voted to ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, in a historic move.
Rishi Sunak, the architect of the highly controversial British policy, said the aim was to prevent the children of tomorrow from taking up smoking, effectively creating a “smoke-free” generation that would end the tobacco industry forever.
But how the hell does he plan to enforce it? Even the world’s largest nanny state, New Zealand, had to scrap the same proposal.
The idea was first proposed by former Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Arden in the final days of her premiership.
It came shortly after she and her left-wing administration adopted some of the world’s most draconian and damaging lockdowns, with New Zealand becoming a “hermit kingdom” with completely closed borders under the false belief that such a tough stance would keep Covid. outside.
Reem Ibrahim: ‘Rishi Sunak, the architect of Britain’s highly controversial policy, said the aim was to prevent the children of tomorrow from taking up smoking, effectively creating a ‘smoke-free’ generation that would end the tobacco industry for good. But how the hell do you plan to enforce it?
The idea was first proposed by former Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Arden in the final days of her premiership. It came shortly after she and her left-wing administration adopted some of the world’s most draconian and damaging lockdowns, with New Zealand becoming a “hermit kingdom”.
The 2023 health report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that 12.7 per cent of Britons aged 15 and over smoke cigarettes daily, much higher than the United States and New Zealand, the latter country recently introduced a similar gradual smoking ban.
Following a recent change of heart, New Zealand scrapped the plans, meaning the UK is now going it alone.
Kiwi’s change of course came just weeks after the Malaysian government abandoned a similar policy due to its constitutional protection against age discrimination.
Christopher Luxon, New Zealand’s new prime minister, explained that the ban would have created an “opportunity for a black market to emerge”, fearing it would cost the Government around $1 billion (£470m) in lost revenue.
Ironically, many younger Britons will probably continue to smoke, but without having to pay the taxes associated with covering NHS costs.
Generational tobacco bans are often framed as preventing children from starting to smoke.
But this, of course, is already illegal. In practice, it’s really about preventing future adults from making decisions about their own bodies.
The gradual introduction of the ban will create two classes of adults. In the not-too-distant future, we will find ourselves in an absurd situation where it would be legal for a 31-year-old to purchase tobacco products, but illegal for a 30-year-old.
Of course, it is extremely naive to believe that this policy will actually create a “smoke-free generation”, as Mr Sunak has claimed.
It will start with the younger generations burning cigarettes for their older siblings.
It will proceed by creating a massive new black market, enriching tobacco smugglers and criminal gangs, while actually doing little to reduce smoking rates.
As America learned during the infamous Prohibition era, banning products with potential negative personal or social effects is a double-edged sword. The illegal black is expanded
market for these goods, unregulated and insecure. Pumping money into organized criminal enterprises fuels corruption and even more crime.
It’s not that there isn’t already an emerging black market for tobacco.
Extraordinarily high tobacco taxes and other restrictions in the United Kingdom have resulted in the development of a growing illicit market. HMRC estimates that one in nine manufactured cigarettes and one in three hand-rolled cigarettes were purchased illegally.
Currently, the black market caters to consumers who simply do not want to pay high prices.
With the ban on tobacco, these criminals will have a large number of new clients that the government has excluded from the legal market.
Christopher Luxon (pictured), New Zealand’s new prime minister, explained that the ban would have created an “opportunity for a black market to emerge”, fearing it would cost the Government around $1 billion (£470m). sterling) in lost income.
It’s ironic that the government is banning tobacco just when society is kicking the habit and adopting safer alternatives, like vaping.
The Government’s 2022 Khan review, which itself proposed a tobacco ban, admitted that even without further intervention, smoking rates would fall to 2 per cent by 2050.
In a strange contradiction, the baseline used by the government’s model for its new generational ban predicted that smoking rates would fall to 8 percent by 2050.
Where do these numbers come from? Was he pulled out of nowhere?
Even the country that elected Ms Arden, the country that pursued a zero Covid policy at the cost of all personal freedoms for so long, did not dare to ban tobacco.
The fact that the United Kingdom, led by Winston Churchill’s party, is now banning tobacco tells us all we need to know about the dangerous, slippery babysitter slope we seem to be falling down.
Reem Ibrahim is communications officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs.