Move To Make Even Buying Cigarettes Illegal!
Well, at least those from vending machines:
As many as 50,000 children are feared to use the machines to acquire cigarettes, and there are fears that figure will rise after last month’s raising of the legal age at which tobacco can be bought…
The proposed ban is likely to gain widespread support among politicians after the success of the ban on smoking in public places and last month’s raising of the legal age from 16 to 18. (The Telegraph)
How can it be justified to ban cigarette vending machines just because one in six child smokers use them to buy their cigarettes. That is absolutely ridiculous. Smoking has recently been banned in all enclosed public spaces, and the smoking age raised to 18. It certainly appears that smokers are the favourite whipping-boys of this government.
Banning the sale of cigarettes from vending machines won’t prevent under-aged people from smoking - after all, only one in six get their cigarettes from them! So five out of six don’t. It really is a case of bansturbation.
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It seems draconian - what would be the compensation package for all the families that own these businesses or work for these businesses.
There are solutions for machines that are in “vulnerable” areas such as hotels where you would expect children to attend.
1) is to make the machines only accept credit cards, (you have to be over 18)
2) attach an age verification tool to it like IDscan http://www.idscan.co.uk
[...] vending machines are used by one in six child smokers. The simple way to prevent these underage children smoking is, for vending machines, [...]