UK PM proposes younger-generation tobacco ban

Taking an idea from New Zealand's progressive government, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has proposed a lifetime ban on purchasing tobacco products for those born after 2008.   

Rishi Sunak is following in Jacinda Ardern’s footsteps | The Telegraph | Annabel Denham: 

October 4, 2023 - "It should alarm us that the Prime Minister thought long and hard about smoking prohibition. It would be more reassuring to learn that this was another knee-jerk idea spouted out of the Conservative government’s random policy generator as its remaining days in power dwindle.... Had Number 10 given any deep thought to a progressive cigarette and tobacco ban – which will see the age at which people can buy these products rise by one year every year so that, eventually, no one can purchase them – they would perhaps have realised how ill-conceived, illiberal, infantilising and illogical it is.

"That the idea has its origins in New Zealand – the country that locked itself down for nearly the longest time and refused to let its citizens come home, and requires Māori theory of creation to be taught in science lessons – should have raised a red flag. Sunak, who recently re-instilled hope that he could be the true heir to Margaret Thatcher and cauterise the wound seared by 2022’s mini-Budget, has now aligned himself with Jacinda Ardern. He may be putting this to a free vote, but history will remember who put this legislation on the cards.

"Much as Akshata Murty may have endeared and persuaded delegates in Manchester of her husband’s commitment to Conservative values, there isn’t a shred of Conservatism in this policy. No personal autonomy; the idea that people will make trade-offs – and sometimes choose the unhealthy option, such is the wonder of the human condition. Though more often than not nowadays, when it comes to tobacco, they don’t: the proportion of smokers has fallen significantly in recent decades: from half of adults in the early 1970s to just 14 per cent now. 

"There was seemingly no consideration of the unintended consequences – the black market that this policy will buttress and the corresponding reduction in tax revenues. And, as usual, the nannying measure is being cloaked in the language of public health and justified on the grounds that it will help protect our socialist, creaking healthcare system. 

"Here are the facts, for MPs who may soon have to decide whether to wave through this awful policy. Smokers don’t cost the NHS money, they save it. A 2017 study from the Institute of Economic Affairs estimated a net saving of £14.7 billion per annum at the rates of consumption at the time, with the costs smokers incurred significantly outweighed by the sum of tobacco duty paid and the old-age expenditures avoided due to premature mortality. 

"This policy would limit consumer choice and create a two-tier society, one in which 48 year old John could purchase cigarettes while Jane, his 47 year old wife, would need to procure them in the underground economy. Shopkeepers would be required to decide on the spot whether a customer might have been born in 2004 or 2005. 

"Perhaps most importantly, prohibition does not work. As the examples of South Africa, India and others have shown, it puts smokers or drinkers at greater risk. It hands money to black marketeers at the expense of tax paying businesses: the South African government lost over 1.7 billion Rand (£77 million) in sin-tax revenue in April 2020 after tightening restrictions that March. In the 1920s, prohibition caused a crime wave across America.

"What is the enduring appeal of these paternalistic, petty regulations? They allow politicians to be seen to do something without spending money. As budgetary constraints have tightened while welfare, pensions and NHS spending have ballooned, elected representatives have pulled this lever with ever greater enthusiasm. But they do come at a cost. To businesses, consumers, workers in the form of lower wages. And pretty soon they’ll cost the Tories."

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/04/rishi-sunak-smoking-ban-nanny-state-jacinda-ardern/

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Unveils Plan To Ban Tobacco Among Youth | 10 News First | October 5, 2023:

NY governor 'test markets' ban on cigarette sales

Governor Kathy Hochul's administration is gauging support for a ban on cigarette sales in New York state. 

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul ‘test-marketing’ a ban on all tobacco sales | New York Post - Rich Calder:

April 22, 2023 - "The ...  Hochul administration is quietly trying to fire up support for a complete ban on the sale of tobacco products in New York, The Post has learned. The state Health Department commissioned a new survey aimed at gauging support for an all-out prohibition — despite Gov. Hochul’s failure to secure support from state legislators to include a ban on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products in the yet-to-be-approved state budget.

"'What is your opinion about a policy that would end the sale of all tobacco products in New York within 10 years?' were among the questions asked last week in the 'New York Local Opinion Leaders Survey,' examined by the Post. Another asks: 'What is your opinion about a policy that would ban the sale of all tobacco products to those born after a certain date? For example, those born after the year 2010 or later would never be sold tobacco.'

"The poll also solicited input on whether there’s backing for other tobacco-related measures, including capping the number of retailers who can sell 'products in a community' and prohibiting its sales near schools.

"The survey, conducted by nonprofit research organization RTI International, was distributed to 'community leaders' statewide, including 'county legislators and county directors of public health,' according to an April 13 memo to prospective participants....

"Hochul’s own budget proposal noted banning flavored tobacco products [see video] would cost the state $133 million in lost tax revenues this fiscal year, which began April 1.

"It’s obvious the Health Department is 'test marketing' potential new smoking policies, and such surveys are not typically funded by taxpayers but through private companies, think tanks, or political campaigns, an Albany insider said.... 'And I’ve never seen anything like this where [the state] uses this kind of focus grouping, alliance building, momentum building.'

"Kent Sopris, president of the New York Association of Convenience Store Owners, predicted a ban would put many stores out of business but wouldn’t stop tobacco use because smokers would just buy cigarettes out of state, online, or illegally on the black market. 'I think it would be bizarre for the state to create another category of illegal product that could lead to more conflict between law enforcement and the community,' he said."  

Read more: https://nypost.com/2023/04/22/kathy-hochul-test-marketing-ban-on-all-ny-tobacco-sales/

"The possible banning of menthol cigarettes in New York," WGRZ-TV, February 16, 2023:

Sweden shows futility of lockdown experiment

How Sweden swerved Covid disaster | Unherd - Johan Anderberg:

November 8, 2021 - "Until recently, prohibition remained the largest experiment in social engineering a democracy had ever undertaken. And then, in early 2020, a new virus began to spread from China. Faced with this threat, the world’s governments responded by closing schools, banning people from meeting, forcing entrepreneurs to shut their businesses and making ordinary people wear face masks. Like prohibition, this experiment provoked a debate. In all the democracies of the world, freedom was weighed against what was perceived as security; individual rights versus what was considered best for public health.

"Few now remember that for most of 2020, the word 'experiment' had negative connotations. That was what Swedes were accused of conducting when we — unlike the rest of the world — maintained some semblance of normality. The citizens of this country generally didn’t have to wear face masks; young children continued going to school; leisure activities were largely allowed to continue unhindered. This experiment was judged early on as 'a disaster' (Time magazine), 'the world’s cautionary tale' (New York Times), 'deadly folly' (the Guardian).... The hypothesis of the outside world was that ... absence of restrictions, open schools, reliance on recommendations instead of mandates and police enforcement would result in higher deaths than other countries. Meanwhile, the lack of freedom endured by the citizens of other countries would 'save lives'. At this stage, it was not unreasonable to conclude that Sweden would pay a high price for its freedom. Throughout the spring of 2020, Sweden’s death toll per capita was higher than most other countries.

"But the experiment didn’t end there. During the year that followed, the virus continued to ravage the world and, one by one, the death tolls in countries that had locked down began to surpass Sweden’s. Britain, the US, France, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Argentina, Belgium — countries that had variously shut down playgrounds, forced their children to wear facemasks, closed schools, fined citizens for hanging out on the beach and guarded parks with drones — have all been hit worse than Sweden. At the time of writing, more than 50 countries have a higher death rate.... If Sweden was a part of the US, its death rate would rank number 43 of the 50 states. 

Graph courtesy CTV News

"This fact is shockingly underreported. Consider the sheer number of articles and TV segments devoted to Sweden’s foolishly liberal attitude to the pandemic last year.... Suddenly, it is as if Sweden doesn’t exist.... 

"From a human perspective, it is easy to understand the reluctance to face these numbers. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that millions of people have been deprived of their freedom, and millions of children have had their education gravely damaged, for little demonstrable gain. Who wants to admit that they were complicit in this? But what one American judge called the 'laboratories of democracy' have conducted their experiment — and the result is increasingly clear.

"Exactly why it turned out this way is harder to explain, but perhaps the 'noble experiment' of the 1920s in the US can offer some clues. Prohibition didn’t win because the freedom argument prevailed. Nor was it because the substance itself had become any less harmful.... The reason for the eventual demise of the alcohol ban was that it simply didn’t work. No matter what the law said, Americans didn’t stop drinking alcohol.... The mistake the American authorities made was to underestimate the complexity of society. Just because they banned alcohol did not mean that alcohol disappeared. People’s drives, desires and behaviours were impossible to predict or fit into a plan. 

"A hundred years later, a new set of authorities made the same mistake. Closing schools didn’t stop children meeting in other settings; when life was extinguished in cities, many fled them, spreading the infection to new places; the authorities urged their citizens to buy food online, without thinking about who would transport the goods from home to home.

"If the politicians had been honest with themselves, they might have foreseen what would happen. For just as American politicians were constantly caught drinking alcohol during the prohibition, their successors were caught 100 years later breaking precisely the restrictions they had imposed on everyone else. The mayors of New York and Chicago, the British government’s top advisor, the Dutch Minister of Justice, the EU Trade Commissioner, the Governor of California all broke their own rules.

"It isn’t easy to control other people’s lives. It isn’t easy to dictate desirable behaviours in a population via centralised command. These are lessons that many dictators have learned. During the Covid pandemic, many democracies have learned it too. The lesson has perhaps not yet sunk in, but hopefully it will eventually. Then perhaps it will be another 100 years before we make the same mistake again."

Read more: https://unherd.com/2021/11/how-sweden-swerved-covid-disaster/