The Government is considering raising the legal smoking age from 18 by one year every year until eventually no one can buy tobacco, and familiar arguments have surfaced.
They go like this. The age at which people are considered to be adults in the UK is 18 — the point at which you can legally get married or be sent to war. No one wants to be nannied at 18: and raising the smoking age looks like a verdict on the point at which we have the maturity to make our own decisions. Why can’t we trust people to weigh up the risks and benefits of their own decisions? Why can’t we trust 18-year-olds? Do we not have faith in the young?
