accessibility of tobacco and cigarettes, found that the majority of 89.6% supported license cancellations on sellers who sold tobacco products to under-age individuals and 69.9% supported restrictions on the sale of tobacco products near schools.
The study also found 49.2% held the view that the legal age of sale for cigarettes and tobacco should be increased to 21, as opposed to 30.7% who were against it. Across the commonwealth Sri Lanka with tough laws on tobacco related products recently increased the legal age for consuming cigarettes to 21 a move that has been called for in India as well, however most commonwealth nations have the legal age for cigarette consumption set at 18.
The study also found that most participants supported lowering the number of retailers dealing with tobacco in areas that had high proportions of tobacco retailers, with a majority of 46.5% in favor and 23.3% against it. In spite these finding the implementation of these policies might not be so straight forward as similar measures in other countries were met with severe backlash from cigarette and tobacco product consumers.
Dr Loren Kock of the University College London, Institute of Epidemiology & Health who led the study stated that the results show that policies on tobacco retailer restrictions in close proximity to schools would be met with an overwhelming majority by the public if legalized in Britain but a significant amount of people had no opinion either way on these potential policies further suggesting that this could shift with more clearer messaging on the evidence and benefits of these policies.
