Generational anti-smoking regulations face enforcement difficulties and social backlash

◎Sa Feng

As countries promote generational smoking bans, the Legislative Yuan recently proposed an amendment to the Tobacco Harm Prevention Act. Those born after 2009 will be unable to legally obtain tobacco products for life. However, today's government agencies often use legislation and sanctions as a way to shape a healthy society. However, when public power attempts to block a substance through administrative orders and age boundaries, it often cannot stop the intertwining problems of human needs, huge profits, and law enforcement costs, and eventually falls into the dilemma of "the undergroundization of tobacco products."

The UK will pass a generational smoking ban. People born on or after January 1, 2009 will be banned from buying cigarettes throughout the UK for life. (European News Agency file photo) First of all, the first difficulty lies in the imbalance between supply and demand of addiction and high profits. Nicotine has extremely high physical and psychological dependence. Just issuing a ban or stipulating in the law that "people born after a certain year are not allowed to buy cigarettes for life" will not evaporate the market demand out of thin air. On the contrary, when the channels for legal acquisition are blocked, the huge demand will be transformed into underground circulation. This strong economic incentive will quickly give rise to illegal problems such as anonymous online purchasing and private resale.

The second mechanical dilemma is the disparity between "concealability" and "enforcement costs." Whether it is traditional paper cigarettes or emerging electronic cigarettes and heated cigarettes, their carrying and use are highly confidential. Taking electronic cigarettes as an example, although they are now banned, they can still be seen on the streets, online, and even on campus. To strictly enforce the "Generation Smoking Ban" or ban private resale, law enforcement agencies must invest huge manpower in identity checks and inspections at retail outlets, around campuses, and even in private spaces. This kind of law enforcement cost that cannot make ends meet means that public power cannot achieve comprehensive monitoring at all, and the law can ultimately be reduced to symbolic provisions or random inspections, thereby damaging the prestige that the law should have.

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Finally, in film and television productions, such as the animation work "Nico Meow", the government and relevant units have excessively suppressed tobacco product symbols, which has further exposed the control crisis. When the competent authorities decontextualize the satirical and realistic depictions of the dangers of smoking in creations as disguised propaganda, they step into the quagmire of censorship and creative freedom. Public power attempts to achieve a preventive effect by filtering visual symbols. Not only does it fail to stop smoking in the real world, it actually erodes society's tolerance for diverse creations.

After the Japanese black humor animation "Nico Mew" was launched in early July this year, the content in the show has repeatedly triggered discussions from all walks of life. (Information photo, taken from social platform "X")

When it comes to tobacco products, an issue that is deeply rooted in people’s habits and human nature, simple prohibitions and blockades often only cover up the problem itself. The key to true public health governance always lies in the establishment of reasonable harm reduction mechanisms through health and education guidance, risk control, and gradual promotion of anti-smoking laws, rather than relying on an extreme ban that seems perfect but cannot be enforced.

(The author is a college student)

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