The world-first ban prohibits anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007, from ever buying, using or smoking tobacco.

The world-first ban prohibits anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007, from ever buying, using or smoking tobacco.

The Maldives has become the first country in the world to impose a generational smoking ban, barring anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007, from ever smoking, purchasing or using tobacco.

“The ban applies to all forms of tobacco, and retailers are required to verify age prior to sale,” the health ministry said Saturday as the ban came into effect.

The step “makes the Maldives the first country in the world to enforce a nationwide generational tobacco ban,” it added.

    • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      01·
      3 days ago

      I don’t get the reasoning that “prohibition has never worked” and “there will be a black market”.

      Yes there will be, and a number of people will still smoke.

      But it will be a minority of people that would normally smoke. It will also remove smoking from the public image.

      I really can’t imagine there being a larger number of smokers just because it’s prohibited.

    • psx_crab@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      Prohibition of the history tend to prohibit the sale of such substance for everyone, this one is kinda like a new-ish idea, merely prohibit people born after a certain year from ever purchasing tobacco, preventing them to even starting, or at least in theory. It however did not prevent people who already smoke from purchasing it. It’s a less severe form of prohibition, akin to prohibition from selling to people younger than 18, no-smoking zone. Smoking decline in a lot of country didn’t happened by chance, its a result from a shit tons of rule set on tobacco industry, short from blanket ban.

      As for black market, you can’t create something that’s already exists.

      • HeartyOfGlass@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        There are quite a few Asian & Middle Eastern countries that have similar bans. A few Muslim countries have prohibition laws saying Muslims can’t buy alcohol, but it’s still legal for Christians, etc.

        It’s certainly not common, but less of a new idea than you might think. My knowledge runs out there, though - I genuinely don’t know how well/poorly those kinds of laws perform even in those areas.

  • rozodru@pie.andmc.caEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    won’t work. Evidently The Maldives have never heard of this thing we like to call “history”.