One of the great success stories of modern public health policy has been the multi-pronged drive to reduce the prevalence of tobacco smoking.
The strategy has included the elimination of advertising and marketing, the imposition of increasingly punitive taxes and the banning of smoking in all enclosed public spaces. Each of these measures has been unsuccessfully resisted by tobacco manufacturers as well as being criticised in some quarters as an illiberal infringement on individual rights. But, taken together, they have saved thousands of lives and reduced the enormous burden which smoking-related diseases place on the health service.
However, smoking still causes an estimated 4,500 deaths in Ireland every year, and there are signs that smoking rates have plateaued at around 18 per cent of adults.
The Government has indicated its intention to raise the age at which tobacco may be legally purchased from 18 to 21. The rationale is that it is precisely in their late teens that most people become addicted. As with any age-related restriction, the intention is that the new limit will also make it harder for 16- and 17-year-olds to access tobacco.
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The initiative is considerably less draconian than UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to amend English law so that anyone born in or after 2009 will never be able to legally buy tobacco. That proposal faces considerable opposition, and there is a legitimate fear that an outright ban could lead to an explosion in the criminal black market for tobacco. A similar law due to come into effect in New Zealand this summer was scrapped following a change of government.
Raising the age limit to 21 seems a more reasonable and measured response. Nicotine’s addictiveness means young people are at high risk of developing a habit which can go on to ruin their health.
But the Government needs to move much faster to regulate vapes – their sale to children was only banned last December. The shameless marketing of these products to the young continues to be a scandal which requires urgent action.