SUPPORTING SMOKERS’ RIGHTS SINCE 1979

UK Government urged to follow New Zealand and scrap tobacco sales ban

Smokers’ rights campaigners have welcomed the news that the next New Zealand government will scrap a new law banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults.

Urging prime minister Rishi Sunak to abandon the Tobacco and Vapes Bill that would introduce the same measure in the UK, Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said:

“The policy treats future generations of adults like kids and it won’t work. It will simply drive smokers into the hands of illegal traders and criminal gangs.”

He added:

“The consequences of the policy, which would eventually allow a 40-year-old to legally buy cigarettes while denying that right to a 39-year-old, are absurd.

“Having stolen the idea from the previous New Zealand government, the prime minister should follow the example of the next New Zealand government and scrap this crazy plan.

“It’s a waste of parliamentary time when there are far more pressing issues that require the Government’s attention before the next election.”

In This Section

Simon Clark

Mission & Vision

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Mission

Forest’s mission is to protect the interests of adults who choose to smoke or consume tobacco.

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Our key aims and objectives are to:

  • counteract the “denormalisation” of smoking, and smokers
  • prevent further restrictions on the purchase and consumption of tobacco
  • establish closer links with other tobacco-friendly groups at home and abroad
  • build support among consumers of tobacco and other similarly threatened groups
  • highlight the increasingly intrusive nature of Big Government in the lives of private individuals