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Comment by neonstatic

4 hours ago

Cigarettes are not incorporated into the UK culture the way alcohol is. Drinking at a pub is sacred to them.

People used to be able to smoke in pubs. But I agree it wasn't quite so culturally foundational.

I'm not going to lose sleep over the idea of a smoking ban, since it was already driven to the margins, but the implementation of it by age is really weird. Clearly a move to avoid annoying pensioners, like everything else.

  • It makes sense to me, we're talking about a highly addictive psychoactive substance. It's much harder to get out of addiction than not get addicted in the first place, and people born after 2008 did not have a legal way to get addicted yet. That's exactly how I'd approach having a transition period to not cause unnecessary suffering in the process.