MS NOW — OPINION: From black markets to an erosion of civil liberties, history shows how prohibition tends to go sideways.
In 1604, King James I of England wrote one of history’s most fervent anti-smoking tracts in response to the rising popularity of tobacco imported from the New World. Smoking, he concluded, was a “custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse.” [sic]
King James would have loved the new law set to be approved by King Charles III establishing a new generation in the United Kingdom that will be forbidden from purchasing tobacco for their entire lives. Specifically, the law makes it an offense to sell cigarettes, cigars, pipe or chewing tobacco, as well as various other forms of tobacco leaf, to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009. This, its proponents say, will eventually lead to a smoke-free society, as the legal age for buying cigarettes rises inexorably until the last living smoker in the U.K. joins the choir invisible.
It’s not hard to imagine how this neat solution may falter. While no one is against banning the sale of cigarettes to teenagers, the situation will become increasingly absurd as today’s 17-year-olds age into maturity, creating a permanent division between adults allowed to buy tobacco and those who are prohibited. Supposedly, the day will come when a 50-year-old can buy a cigar from the tobacconist, but their 49-year-old friend must be turned away. Can one really expect this prohibition to be durably respected?
The U.K.’s new law takes an ultimately infantilizing view of tobacco use.
“Children in the U.K. will be part of the first smoke-free generation, protected from a lifetime of addiction and harm,”U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said. But these children will eventually become adults denied the right to make decisions for themselves. It’s grossly illiberal. » | Jacob Grier * | Sunday, April 26, 2026
* Jacob Grier is a freelance writer in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of several books, including The New Prohibition and The Rediscovery of Tobacco, and a founder of the link-sharing platform Seabird.
LISEZ ÉGALEMENT CET article.
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