That freedom is very relative. In philosophy, the definitions of Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger or Kierkegaard vary. For Marx it consists of “being free from the forces that oppress society.” In politics, for Isabel Ayuso they are a handful. And for former British Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, that the State does not interfere in the lives of citizens, does not infantilize them and does not make decisions for them.
But the current UK Government and Parliament have a different interpretation, and have decided that, when it comes to smoking, freedom is not about deciding whether to smoke or not, but about being free from nicotine addiction, and have taken a decisive step to pass the toughest anti-smoking legislation in the world, which will prohibit all Britons (and residents of the United Kingdom) born on or after January 1, 2009 from legally purchasing the product.
The House of Commons approved the law in its first reading by 383 votes in favor and 67 against (57 of them conservatives from the libertarian wing who have rebelled against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, thinking that after tobacco will come alcohol and fast food within the crusade to improve the country's health). The project now goes to the Lords for debate, and from there it will return to the Lower House for its final signature and signature by the king, probably in the fall. But the block support for the measure by the opposition (Labour, Liberal Democrats, Scottish and Welsh nationalists) guarantees that it will go ahead.
The legal age to buy tobacco will be progressively lowered annually, so that those who are fifteen years old or younger today would never be able to do so. Apart from those related to individual freedom, the argument of the law's detractors is the difficulty of applying it, the danger of creating a black market in tobacco and the creation of two types of citizens, those who can buy cigarettes (the born before 2009) and those who are not (those born after), a scenario that in his opinion is dystopian and with Orwellian overtones.
The Government has announced that it will dedicate 35 million euros annually to ensure that the law is applied, and will impose fines of 120 euros on businesses that dispense tobacco to unauthorized people. But nothing can prevent someone from asking a friend, older brother or even a stranger to purchase cigarettes for him, or from getting them himself abroad. Because what is illegal will not be smoking but selling.
Although electronic cigarettes and vaping devices (with or without nicotine) will not be subject to such a severe restriction, the law also contemplates discouraging their use, prohibiting disposable ones, raising the taxes applied to them and warning with marketing techniques of their potential effects. harmful. Many young people who have stopped smoking turn to them, thinking that they do less harm.
In the United Kingdom there are 6.4 million smokers (almost 13% of the adult population, especially in the group between 25 and 34 years old). It is estimated that tobacco causes 80,000 deaths and half a million heart attacks, lung cancer and other diseases annually, and that the new law would save Social Security about 20 billion euros per year. A pack costs 18 euros.
