A report shows British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has revealed intentions to permanently outlaw the sale of tobacco to everyone born on or after January 1, 2009.
In the United Kingdom, smoking has been prohibited in pubs and restaurants for 16 years, on aircraft for 35 years, and cigarette packaging has been debranded for six years.
Sunak said at the Conservative Party convention that the smoking age in England will be increased yearly.
Although U.K. smokers pay more taxes than they spend on health care, the prime minister said they burden the National Health Service tremendously.
Critics were horrified to learn how the conservative prime minister backed a stringent restriction on consumers’ freedom of choice.
Christopher Snowdon, director of lifestyle economics at the United Kingdom’s Institute of Economic Affairs, said it was a prohibitionist ploy, unconservative, and full of flaws. A two-tiered society would emerge, with adults buying cigarettes from those a few years their senior, further swelling the black market.
The UK has some of the strictest tobacco laws in the world, including complete smoke-free legislation, cigarette display bans, and plain packaging, and tobacco costs $15 a pack. Although 9.1% of British adults use e-cigarettes, most are former smokers. Hence, the government has advocated for cleaner nicotine alternatives.
But E-cigarettes may also soon be prohibited in Sunak’s war on nicotine.
In the US, a report shows that the FDA lost authority over premium cigars in August, much to the pleasure of tobacco enthusiasts.
This judgment ends years of litigation after the FDA expanded its authority under the Tobacco Control Act of 2009 in 2016 to impose potentially onerous requirements on cigar manufacturers. Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia overturned the FDA’s 2016 regulation.
The debate was whether the FDA gave enough weight to evidence that premium cigars like cigarettes and oral tobacco should be regulated. The plaintiffs alleged that the FDA manipulated youth cigar smoking data and ignored its own health study on premium cigars.
The verdict merely removes the FDA’s power over luxury cigars, leaving machine-made, small, and flavored cigar rules untouched.
