{"id":26195,"date":"2025-08-28T09:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=26195"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:50:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:50:53","slug":"gibraltar-debates-tobacco-ban-with-vaping-also-in-firing-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/gibraltar-debates-tobacco-ban-with-vaping-also-in-firing-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Gibraltar debates tobacco ban with vaping also in firing line"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gibraltar is considering a law that would stop anyone born after 2009 from ever buying tobacco. The same draft bill also targets vaping, with a proposed blanket ban on disposable vapes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft bill, spearheaded by Minister for Health, Care and Business Gemma Arias-Vasquez, would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If approved, the law would take effect in January 2027, when the first of that group turns 18. The proposals also ban the sale and advertising of single-use vapes to all ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to UK proposals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Similar \u201cgenerational ban\u201d<\/a> plans are already on the table in the UK, where the government has proposed raising the legal smoking age each year so that no one born after 2009 can ever legally buy tobacco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arias-Vasquez launched a consultation last March, receiving responses from around 28 to 30 stakeholders, including retailers and industry representatives. \u201cI now have to take that to Cabinet and then determine whether or not we’re going [to] pass the Bill,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She acknowledged that businesses flagged concerns about the financial impact of the proposals. \u201cI really thank them for providing all that feedback,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of the issues we probably had considered. There was one or two that we had a debate around about the very practical aspects of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed legislation would not make it illegal for young people themselves to smoke, but rather outlaw the purchase or transfer of tobacco products to those born after 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a lot of misunderstanding around, it is not illegal for them to smoke,\u201d Arias-Vasquez said. \u201cWe\u2019re not depriving people of the choice. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance and addiction is not a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making it a punishable offence for them. It\u2019s the sale of it, or the handing over of it to that younger age group. People think, well you\u2019re banning people from doing X, Y, Z. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, no, no. What we\u2019re doing is, it\u2019s the sale and the handing over to the younger people. But we are trying to make it harder for people to get into the habit of smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambition for \u2018smoke-free\u2019 environment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The minister framed the plan as part of Gibraltar\u2019s ambition to create a \u201csmoke-free environment.\u201d But vape advocates warn the tighter regulations on vaping risks driving smokers back to cigarettes or fuelling a black market in unregulated products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, countries that have banned disposables have struggled to enforce the rules, while adult smokers have been left with fewer accessible quitting tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft bill would also outlaw vending machine sales of cigarettes and vapes, prohibit products designed to imitate smoking such as toy cigarettes or sweets, and impose steep penalties on retailers who breach the rules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who breach the rules would face fines of up to \u00a310,000 for sales to underage buyers, and as much as \u00a320,000 or loss of licence for repeat offences.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gibraltar is considering a law that would stop anyone born after 2009 from ever buying tobacco. The same draft bill also targets vaping, with a proposed blanket ban on disposable vapes. The draft bill, spearheaded by Minister for Health, Care and Business…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990005,"featured_media":26196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-26195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26202,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195\/revisions\/26202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=26195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}