Plans to hike the age limit on cigarettes while liberalising laws on drugs show a lack of 'joined-up thinking’, Ciara Kelly has said.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is aiming to raise the age limit for buying cigarettes to 21-years-old as part of a new plan to break the habit among young people.
A public consultation is expected to be launched this week asking the public for their views on the plan.
Other countries are going further. New Zealand has announced the age at which you can buy cigarettes will rise by one year every year from 2027 onwards - meaning no one born in 2009 will ever be allowed to legally buy tobacco.
Ciara said she does not have an issue with the policy but questioned the timing given the Government is also looking at relaxing drug laws.
“4,500 people die from cigarette smoking every year and smoking is the biggest preventable cause of ill health, disability and death that we have,” she told Newstalk Breakfast listeners.
“I would add into that ‘currently’ because I think it’s really interesting, we are clamping down like mad on cigarettes, we are tightening up the laws.
“We are very anti [smoking], we recognise the harms. At the same time as we are liberalising our laws on drugs.
“It’s like we have no joined-up thinking. It’s modernity, I think.”
Drugs
Last month, the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use recommended that the possession of drugs should be decriminalised and to take a health-led approach to drug use.
Ciara said it would be a “contradiction” if the Government were to accept their recommendations, while also restricting who can smoke.
“If you smoke between the ages of 18 and 20, you’re quite likely to become a lifetime smoker and one in five or us, more or less, are smokers and it’s awful,” she said.
“But then why aren’t we worried about the other things that we’re liberalising?
“The two legal drugs that we have in society cause us untold damage but we want to legalise more of them.”
Vaping
Co-presenter Shane said he wondered if the Government has picked the wrong public health issue to focus on.
“Is it a fire engine going towards the wrong fire?” he said.
“Vaping seems to be the real issue at the moment; I don’t oppose this measure but I do wonder if vaping has become the issue.”
According to a survey by Foróige Sligo, more than one in three teenagers say they vape but never smoke.
One Lunchtime Live listener said vapes are considered to be “less dirty than cigarettes” and are easier to access.
The HSE describes vapes as potentially “less harmful” than tobacco but notes their long-term impact on a person’s health is not yet known.
Main image: Ciara Kelly.
