IEA Communications Officer Reem Ibrahim has written for The Daily Mail criticising proposals for a generational ban on tobacco and crackdown on disposable e-cigarettes which were recently put before Parliament.

Reem wrote:

“The UK’s extraordinarily high tobacco taxes and other restrictions have resulted in the development of a growing illicit market HMRC estimates that one in nine manufactured cigarettes and one in three hand-rolled cigarettes were bought illegally. 

“The black market currently serves consumers who simply don’t want to pay high prices.

“With the tobacco ban, these criminals will have a whole host of new customers that the government have banished from the legal market.

“It’s ironic that the government is banning tobacco just as society is skipping the habit and taking up safer alternatives, like vaping.”

Read Reem’s full piece here.

Reem also criticised the ban in CapX.

You can read IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon’s recent report Prohibition 2.0: Critiquing the Generational Tobacco Ban.