UK legal smoking age should increase every year, says government review
The UK should increase the legal age someone can buy cigarettes every year until they are virtually illegal, according to a new government-commissioned review.
The review, by Dr Javed Khan, said that the UK should create a “smoke-free generation” with people born after a certain time unable to legally buy cigarettes.
New Zealand has a similar policy, with no one born after 2008 ever allowed to buy cigarettes.
The review also found the UK is set to miss its “smoke free 2030” target by at least seven years.
“To have any chance of hitting the smoke-free 2030 target, we need to accelerate the rate of decline of people who smoke, by 40 per cent,” the review said.
The review also suggested that cigarettes should be made green in further plain packaging attempts and for vapes to be promoted as a “stop to swap” tool.
In his report, Dr Javed Khan said: “A smoke-free society should be a social norm – but to achieve this we must do more to stop people taking up smoking, help those who already smoke and support those who are disproportionately impacted by smoking. My holistic set of recommendations for government will deliver this, whilst saving lives, saving money and addressing the health disparities associated with smoking.
“My proposals are not just a plan for this government, but successive governments too. To truly achieve a smoke-free society in our great country, we need to commit to making smoking obsolete, once and for all.”
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has backed the findings in the report, saying that the tobacco industry profits from “getting young people addicted to smoking, something that will kill or severely disable many of them”.
He said: “The majority of people who are smokers wish to quit, but cannot because the cigarette industry has addicted them at a very young age. They cannot. That is not freedom of choice.
“If you’re in favour of freedom, you absolutely are not in favour of this addictive industry that kills so many people.”
The review’s findings have been ridiculed by a series of think tanks closely linked to the Conservative party.
Matthew Lesh, head of public policy at the free market Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, said: “An annual increase in the smoking age, on the way to prohibition, is totally insane. Prohibition simply doesn’t work. It will create a gigantic criminal black market.”