Welcome to the smokefree generation: Soon it could be illegal to ever sell tobacco to anyone turning 15 this year or younger. Here's why...

What’s the best way to stop smoking? Not to start in the first place. Because, while, it’s very easy to take your first drag, it’s very difficult to take your last.

Each year, thousands of Brits desperately try to give up but cannot, substantially increasing their risk of serious illnesses – including strokes, diabetes and heart disease – and an early death.

Tobacco kills a staggering 80,000 people every year in the UK – nearly 220 a day – and cuts each smoker’s life short by a decade.

While it’s very easy to take your first drag, it’s very difficult to take your last

Most smokers want to quit but it can be very difficult. Smoking is simply too addictive.

That’s why the government has announced one of the most significant public-health measures in decades – making sure our children can never be legally sold tobacco. It plans to bring in new legislation to make it an offence to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, creating our first-ever smokefree generation.

If passed, it will phase out smoking over time and, with it, tackle the biggest single preventable cause of ill health, disability and death in the UK.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty explains: ‘Smoking is based on addiction, and most people wish they had never taken it up. They try to stop yet they cannot. Their choice has been taken away.

‘As a doctor, I have seen many people in hospital desperate to stop smoking, but they just can’t.’

SAVING OUR TEENS FROM SMOKING

Last October, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to introduce a smokefree generation by introducing legislation to make it an offence to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 Jan 2009.

This would mean that anyone turning 15 this year or younger will never be legally sold such items, preventing future generations from ever taking up smoking.

The new law means that anyone turning 15 this year or younger will never be legally sold tobacco

This will not criminalise smoking, and those who can currently buy tobacco legally will still be able to do so.

Instead, tobacco sales will be phased out gradually, saving thousands of lives and billions of pounds for the NHS and our economy every year.

As well as ushering in new powers to fine rogue retailers, the government will provide £30 million of new funding to crack down on illicit tobacco and the sale of tobacco and vapes to underage people. It will also double the money available to fund local stop smoking services to nearly £140 million to help more people quit.

The new bill will also take action against youth vaping by reducing their appeal and availability to children. In the past three years, the number of youngsters using these devices has tripled, and one-in-five children admitted trying vaping in March and April last year alone.

The new measures aim to protect young people’s lungs and brains from the currently unknown long-term effects of vapes while they are still developing and the harm of nicotine addiction.

‘SEEING A FRIEND DIE FROM COPD MADE ME GIVE UP’

Stella Coombe, 59, quit smoking seven years ago by going cold turkey and using the NHS Quit Smoking app

‘I started smoking at school, aged 14, and by 16 I was hooked. But I realised that I had to knock it on the head about seven years ago. I knew it would have an adverse impact on me if I didn’t.

‘I knew a smoker who had passed away from COPD, and seeing that death was pretty horrific. I went completely cold turkey. I used the NHS Quit Smoking app and another that added up the money I’d saved, which was a massive incentive for me. I could also see my lung health and capacity on it, and I could see it over the weeks and months going from the red danger zone to green.’

Stella Coombe, 59, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire

‘I GAVE UP BECAUSE I DIDN’T WANT MY KIDS TO SMOKE’

‘I’d always hidden the fact I smoked from my kids, now aged 11 and 16. But a few years ago, as I was hitting 40, they were becoming old enough to understand what I was doing when I went outside to have a cigarette. That’s what made me realise I had to give up – it was highly influential for me having parents who smoked, and I didn’t want the same for my children. I know how bad smoking is. Having given up, I’m more energetic; things such as rushing for the train, doing housework and running around with the kids, are easier.’

Amie Roulland, 45, southeast London

‘I QUIT TO CLIMB MOUNT KILIMANJARO’

‘I started smoking in my early twenties but quit about 12 weeks ago. A friend was recently diagnosed with cancer of the windpipe, there’s the cost of buying cigarettes today and I’m also planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of friends in 2025 – I’ll be struggling if I still smoke. I think the new legislation is a good idea. I’ve got a young son, so he won’t be sold cigarettes legally when he grows up, and that’s got to be a good thing.’

Matt Goulty, 46, Sheffield

BUT WHAT DO TEENAGERS THINK?

Katya Arnold, 18, is in favour of the new law

Katya Arnold, an 18-year-old in her final year of secondary school, lives near Canterbury, Kent, with her mother Mary.

‘I never met my granddad because he died from smoking before I was born. He wasn’t very old, but he had a heart attack.

‘Also, I know the pain of losing a loved one – my dad, the renowned journalist Harry Arnold, died from liver cancer six days after my ninth birthday. I wasn’t prepared for it and was very upset. A lot of younger people haven’t experienced something like this.

‘Teenagers often aren’t the best at making the right long-term decisions. Recently I’ve heard people my age saying they regret starting smoking – a boy in my school said he’d been trying to give up but couldn’t. They regret it, but it’s too late.

‘I’m definitely in favour of children turning 15 this year and younger never legally being sold cigarettes.

‘They could be told: ‘Think about the future – soon you will be the centre of someone’s universe and, while all deaths are sad, if it could have been prevented, that’s 10 times sadder’.’

■ This article is part of a paid-for partnership with HM Government