Smoking is dangerous for your health. We know it, we are told it again with great reinforcements of anti-smoking campaigns. But do prevention messages really succeed in dissuading young people from touching the first cigarette? In Great Britain, some doctors clearly answer no. According to them, for prevent younger generations from smoking, there is only one truly effective weapon: prohibition. Eager to protect the youngest from the scourge of smoking, a group of doctors has issued a radical proposal to make it illegal to sell cigarettes permanently to Britons born after the year 2000.
The British Medical association is called to vote on this astonishing idea on Tuesday. If the representative union of doctors gives a favorable response, it will then pressure the government to pass a law in this direction. This new law would then be added to the bans on smoking in public places and on smoking in cars in the presence of children (passed respectively in 2002 and 2011).
A smoky idea?
In 2012, 23% of Britons aged 11 to 15 tried smoking at least once, according to UK figures. Doctors hope that checking the “generation of the year 2000” identity card and banning the sale of tobacco will prevent them from smoking. Wishful thinking? In any case, Tim Crocker-Buque, the doctor behind the proposal, believes it: “Cigarettes are a choice made by children and which results in addiction in adulthood, which is extremely difficult. to get rid of, he explains to the Guardian. 8% of smokers start in adolescence. (…) The idea is therefore to prevent children who do not yet smoke from getting started “.
Still, this idea is far from unanimous. Impossible to implement for some, useless for others, the opponents do not lack arguments such as that for example, that it will always be possible for young Britons by one means or another to obtain cigarettes (by asking around them).
In France, where the age of smoking is estimated at 11 years and 8 months, do you think such a measure could come into effect? Have your say on the forum.
