@pavellimSo anyone born in Britain from January 1, 2009 onward will never legally be able to buy a cigarette. Not as a kid, not as an adult, not ever. And the framing around this is what gets me, because calling it child protection doesn't hold up when minors already can't buy tobacco. What this actually looks like is lifelong guardianship, where the state has essentially decided that a whole generation shouldn't grow up with the right to purchase something that's legal. The slope here is what worries people, and honestly it's not hard to see why. Today a pack of cigarettes, tomorrow Coca-Cola, the day after tomorrow the Bible. The Founding Fathers of America apparently saw this kind of power grab coming well before any of us did. That's why the Constitution reads as a list of things the government cannot do, not a list of permissions handed to citizens. Whether you smoke or not, the principle being set here is the part worth sitting with.

@pavellimSo anyone born in Britain from January 1, 2009 onward will never legally be able to buy a cigarette. Not as a kid, not as an adult, not ever. And the framing around this is what gets me, because calling it child protection doesn't hold up when minors already can't buy tobacco. What this actually looks like is lifelong guardianship, where the state has essentially decided that a whole generation shouldn't grow up with the right to purchase something that's legal. The slope here is what worries people, and honestly it's not hard to see why. Today a pack of cigarettes, tomorrow Coca-Cola, the day after tomorrow the Bible. The Founding Fathers of America apparently saw this kind of power grab coming well before any of us did. That's why the Constitution reads as a list of things the government cannot do, not a list of permissions handed to citizens. Whether you smoke or not, the principle being set here is the part worth sitting with.