It’s not a good time to be a smoker in Australia right now. Right off the back of the news that the Supreme Court has upheld the decision to strip all cigarettes of their branding, the state of Tasmania is now considering banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after the year 2000.

This novel idea was proposed by independent parliamentary MP, Ivan Dean, who believes that the ban will, in his own words, stop minors “from buying a product that they can’t already buy.” His rationale follows that requesting ID’s at tills would prevent the need for arithmetic, as the shopkeeper can simply look to see if the birthday is higher than 2000.

This would then allow for an entire new generation of non-smokers to be generated, created as everyone grows up and gets older but the ban remains in place. It would seem, following this logic, that eventually only those over 60 would be legally allowed to buy cigarettes then…

The decision brings even more accusations of Australia’s reputation as a nanny state, and raises issues such as the autonomy of the person.

Tasmania is the state with the highest percentage of smokers in Australia, with one in every four people smoking. Similar bans on the sale of tobacco are now also being considered by Finland and Singapore.

I have to wonder how long it would have taken for an outright ban of cigarettes if it wasn’t for the fat tax income they generate?

[Source: London Free Press]