A teenager turning 18 in Britain next year will never legally buy a pack of cigarettes. The UK Parliament has approved legislation that raises the smoking age by one year, every year—creating what they're calling a smoke-free generation. The math is startling: a child born in 2009 will be prohibited from buying tobacco at 18, at 40, at 70. Smoking claims 74,600 lives annually in the United Kingdom, making it the leading cause of preventable death. As Health Secretary Wes Streeting put it, "Prevention is better than cure -- this reform will save lives." The law also tightens restrictions on vaping, banning it in cars with children, playgrounds, and outside schools. New Zealand and the Maldives have passed similar generational bans. It's a radical experiment: not prohibition exactly, but a slow legislative sunset, one birth year at a time.
