- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
- Technically, the new law will raise the legal age requirement in the UK for buying cigarettes, cigars or tobacco, which is currently 18, by one year in every subsequent year, starting on January 1, 2027
- This will effectively mean that people born on or after January 1, 2009 will never be eligible to buy them
- Retailers will face financial penalties for selling the products to those not entitled to them
- The government will also be empowered to impose a new registration system for smoking and vaping products entering the country, seeking to improve oversight
- The bill will expand the UK’s indoor smoking ban to a series of outdoor public spaces, for instance in children’s playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals
- Most indoor spaces that are designated smoke-free will become vape-free as well
- Smoking in designated areas outside pubs and bars and other hospitality settings will remain permissible
- Smoking and vaping will remain legal in people’s homes
- Vaping will become illegal in cars if someone under the age of 18 is inside, to match existing rules on smoking
- Advertising for smoking and vaping products will be banned
- People aged 18 or older will remain eligible to purchase vaping products, but some items targeted at younger consumers like disposable vapes have already been outlawed as part of the program
Same reason my smoker friend tells me he hates vaping: “it just hits different”
It does feel very different! Smoking is way worse for you and way nastier but it DOES feel ways that no amount of nicotine in a vape can feel.
But having to use a shitty black market for cigarettes every day would surely motivate most of them to try to learn to love the vape.
The black market would then only be supported by irredeemable vape haters. Who got hooked on cigarettes while never in their life being able to buy them legally. Which doesn’t seem like a big market to me - so might not be big enough to be profitable.
The black market is easily available to those who use something that can only be bought through it. You can only be introduced to something by someone who already has a connection and once you have that one connection, you often find more.
Sometimes the black market can actually even be more convenient than regulated shops, like soon people in the UK will have their local tobacco dude who’ll drop your stuff off at your doorstep
Black market encompasses all unregulated sales, most of which is just people selling to people they know, word of mouth etc.