Would This Massive Cigarette Law Fly In North Dakota?

A radical new law overseas is looking to majorly disrupt the cigarette industry and keep kids (and eventually adults) from smoking.

Since the early 1900s, big tobacco has targeted teenagers and young adults while maintaining a firm grip on the older adults they already ensnared, making cigarette use one of the major concerns in not only our nation but the entire world. Even though smoking has been a major issue for a very long time, it is still one of the subjects that receives the least attention.

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Other topics have gotten out of hand and have been subject to limitations, guidelines, or even a temporary ban. But with regard to cigarettes, the government has only ever taxed the product and raised the legal age of purchase as the best it could do to make big tobacco suffer the consequences of its conduct.

In North Dakota, it is a noncriminal offense for an individual under 21 years of age to purchase, possess, smoke, or use cigarettes, cigars, cigarette papers, snuff, tobacco in any other form in which it may be utilized for smoking or chewing, electronic smoking devices, or alternative nicotine products.

A new law that is being tested elsewhere in the world could be the next step taken by North Dakota to fight against smoking.

In the UK, where the cigarette rules are the best in the world have caught the attention of the rest of the world when it comes to regulations. Other nations, including Australia, are keeping an eye on how these laws play out; if they succeed, we might soon witness a change in the way things are done around the world.

At the Conservative Party conference on last Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a statement regarding tobacco regulations.

The smoking age in England will be raised yearly, so a 14-year-old will never be able to legally purchase cigarettes, said Prime Minister Sunak. Consequently, the legal smoking age will at least be 22 when those 14-year-olds become 21 and will rise annually after that. As a result, anyone born after 2009 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes because they will be under-age.

Although these rules might be effective in other nations and North Dakota parents would do anything to prevent their kids from smoking and developing a nicotine addiction, it is doubtful that our laws would ever be so onerous. Some people think that the government's refusal to take appropriate action to combat big tobacco is entirely due to the revenue they receive from taxes.

Would you support this law? Would you expand it to vaping as well? Let us know in the comments.