Smokers' rights group Forest has condemned the UK government's official announcement of legislation that will deny future generations of adults the right to buy tobacco.
According to reports from the BBC and other news media, during the opening of the new session of the British Parliament today, King Charles proposed the government's new legislative plan, which includes a Generation Tobacco Bill.
The proposal would make it impossible for anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, to legally purchase cigarettes, effectively raising the legal purchase age by one year each year.
The government is also seeking to introduce rules to regulate the flavors and descriptions of e-cigarettes, which critics say are targeted at children.
Forest Service chief Simon Clark said: "This is the worst form of policing in the country because it treats adults like children."
"If you're old enough to vote, drive a car, join the military, buy alcohol, you're old enough to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products."
Clark warned that the legislation would promote black market trading. "The biggest beneficiary of prohibition will not be public health, but criminal gangs and other illegal traders," he said.
“Given everything that is going on in the world, at home and abroad, it is appalling that the Conservative government would waste precious parliamentary time banning the sale of tobacco to adults who are fully capable of making informed decisions for themselves. "
