British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposed a gradual ban on cigarettes on Wednesday that would prevent younger generations from ever buying the tobacco products, a measure that would make Britain one of the toughest anti-smoking countries in the world.
The law would annually increase the age of legal purchase of cigarettes from the current 18-year-old limit by one year every 12 months. If passed, the proposal would make the United Kingdom the first European country to ban the sale of cigarettes entirely to its young citizens.
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“A 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette,” Sunak said at the Conservative Party Conference on Wednesday.
“Raising the age of sale of tobacco is creeping prohibition, but it won’t stop young people smoking because prohibition doesn’t work,” said Simon Clark, the director of the British smoking rights group Forest, in a statement. “Anyone who wants to smoke will buy tobacco abroad or from illicit sources.”
U.S. critics of proposed bans on menthol cigarettes have also argued that cigarette bans create illicit markets for contraband, making purchasing and using products more dangerous and requiring increased police intervention.
Sunak, however, argued that smoking costs the British National Health Service 17 billion pounds per year, or nearly $21 billion. He also contended that cancer deaths could be reduced by 25% if people quit smoking.
In 2007, the British government raised the legal age of buying cigarettes from 16 to 18. In 2019, the Department of Health published plans to make England entirely smoke-free by 2030.
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The World Health Organization published new guidance on smoking this summer with the goal of eliminating smoking globally, calling the use of tobacco “one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.”
WHO estimates that there are 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide, killing over 8 million people per year.
