Is this the end of smoking?

I don't believe the ban will have the desirable effect. The black market for tobacco products will surely get a boost.

That maybe true Greta but it's also true that smoking will continue to be socially unacceptable.
When I think back to the 1960s and 70s it seemed like everyone smoked. You could buy packets of cigarettes in small packs with your pocket money.
Cinemas were filled with smoke and smelled of burning tobacco.

I am uneasy about this law, too, making citizens unequal. What about when these folk born post-2009 reach 30 or 40yo - if they decide to try tobacco and go to buy cigarettes will they be challenged, even if they’re balding or grey haired?

It would be great to see the back of smoking and the NHS would thank us, too, but I’m not sure this is the right way to go about it. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a youngster smoking a cigarette - it’s all about vapes nowadays.

Over the past few years we've had a lot of tradesmen working here and I've been shocked how many of the young lads smoke - all of them smoke roll-ups to save money. Most of these lads play rugby and go to the gym but for some reasons the health dangers of smoking haven't put them off. I should add that none of them smoked in the house but there were frequent fag breaks

If they really want to smoke they will just get someone older to buy them anyway

Smoking ciggies may well be a lower class habit but that does not apply to those smoking cigars from Havana. Cigars are pure monocultured tobacco; ciggies contain a wide range of additives.

I was exposed to much cigarette secondary smoke until I left home but it seems to have had no effect on me.

How much extra tax will we all have to pay to offset the loss from cigarette sales?

I wonder what,kind of habit it is in countries places that arent obsessed with class?

This new proposed law covers all tobacco products including hookah pipes.

I gave up smoking about eight years ago, hardest thing I’ve ever done…

Must be rich lower classes have you seen the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes

I live in a very working class area but work in a very middle class one. The latter, whether young or old, do not smoke cigarettes. For the former cigarettes are still a way of life, although you are more likely to see the youth vaping these days. However, both demographics under 60 years of age are equally likely to smoke weed.

Most of know smoking is not healthy, neither is drinking alcohol really. We all saw what prohibition did in the USA.

MissInterpreted

Whenever this issue is raised, people always bring up the subject of alcohol - but two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, I understand the problems associated with alcohol too, but why don't we start by tackling smoking first?

I doubt the problems associated with alcohol will be seriously investigated in the same way.

Too many MPs like their glass of wine or beer.

I don't believe this ban will work other than on a superficial level.

The only way IMO to curb both smoking and excessive alcohol consumption is through education, and making both socially unacceptable.

No government will ever attempt to ban alcohol completely - why would they - and vaping in the privacy of your own home should not be a criminal offence either. Humans have been experimenting with 'fermentation' and inhaling various compounds since the dawn of time and will continue to do so.

What is important is to protect those who neither smoke nor drink from the effects that might occur from those who do.

It's not going to be an offence to smoke, just buying cigarettes if you are a child.

A teacher I knew developed lung cancer from passive smoking from the staffroom. She had never smoked.
She was very angry in that short time before she died.

Interesting report on Sky News, the only increase in smoking during the last decade is middle class women aged 18-45, up 25%.

I heard that report too Jax. Rather surprising and sad.

People used to take up smoking to suppress their appetite and thus lose weight. Could be that?

Dear God I hope so, anyone with half a brain cell would agree

No.

On a purely selfish, personal point of view I would love smoking to be completely banned.
The stench of a Smokey room. Following someone who is smoking and breathing the awful air. Sitting next to a smoker ( no madam/sir that cologne or mint does not cover it up).
Also that tiny baby or schoolchild who reeks of smoke due to its parents smoking.

It will never be banned ginny which is why this action is being sought, so that eventually anyone legally able to smoke will have died and there'll be no smokers left.

Smileless2012

It will never be banned ginny which is why this action is being sought, so that eventually anyone legally able to smoke will have died and there'll be no smokers left.

It won't be illegal to smoke that would be impossible to enforce. Just people of a certain age will not be able to buy them

I think it's a good idea actually. A lot of people smoke smuggled tobacco anyway, but probably not the smokers who are just starting out. It does seem odd to have a law that applies to just one age group, but it's not random, it's so that those who already rely on tobacco can legally continue, while younger people don't get to start smoking habitually. Hope it does go through, although I doubt it will. It's a clear message.

Setback yesterday when DGS age 16 told his dad he thought smoking looked cool.

You can’t legally buy cigarettes or vapes under 18 anyway. They do, though. Same applies to booze and drugs. All the more attractive as forbidden fruit really. Illegal cigs are much cheaper so there will always be a market for them. Who knows what is in them?

I really doubt if any sort of ban is going to stop anyone. Hopefully it will just become more and more unacceptable. I don't actually know anyone who smokes. None of our family do, nor do any of our immediate neighbours. I don't have a huge circle of friends but none of them smoke and most of them have never smoked.