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Jersey's young politicians yesterday agreed that anyone born after 2009 should be banned from purchasing tobacco or vapes.
Teams from Jersey College for Girls, Victoria College, Beaulieu Convent School, De La Salle College and Hautlieu lined up to grill ministers yesterday afternoon for the 26th Annual Youth Assembly.
Topics being debated included whether Jersey should introduce mandatory education or training until the age of 18 and whether supporting tourism should be made a priority for the Island and funded through an increase in tax on finance companies.
The students also asked a series of prepared questions on care providers, plastic-free packaging, lowering the age for mammogram screenings, housing affordability for young people, ADHD medication and more.
Some of those in the hot seat included previous members of the Youth Assembly Deputies Sam Mézec and Alex Curtis – and students asked Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham questions without notice for up to 15 minutes.
Pictured: Sienna Springett from Beaulieu proposed that an increase in tax on finance companies would support tourism (Rob Currie).
Tara Battrick, from Beaulieu (on behalf of Victoria College Jersey), proposed the topic of vaping, asking the Assembly whether the Government should ban anyone born after 2009 from being able to purchase tobacco or vapes.
She said that Jersey would follow in the footsteps of the UK by "phasing out a generation of smokers", as proposed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last year.
"The Government announced plans in 2023 to ban disposable vapes, but this needs to go further", she said.
The team argued that the health benefits and financial benefits made the proposition attractive – and the proposition was approved with eight votes for, five votes against, and three abstentions.
Despite laws against selling vapes to under-18s in Jersey, the 2021 Jersey Children and Young People Survey found that 58% of 16 to 17-year-olds have tried e-cigarettes, with about a third using them occasionally or regularly.
A joint investigation by Bailiwick Express and the Jersey Evening Post revealed how sweet-inspired flavours, highlighter-style packaging, and a lack of regulation meaning products that are illegal in the UK can still be sold locally had helped spawn what one local doctor described as a "generation of nicotine-addicted kids" in Jersey.
The new Environment Minister has committed to continuing the work on tackling vaping and is "looking at the most effective and quickest way" for a ban on disposable e-cigarettes to be introduced in Jersey.
A month before Jersey's politicians debate the fine details of assisted dying legislation, their junior counterparts also voted that the service should not be legalised.
Greffier Lisa Hart said that the Youth Assembly provided an "invaluable opportunity" for Jersey's young people to have "a formal, political debate in the States Chamber and to ask questions and hold debates on topics they care about".
INSIGHT: How 'highlighters' and lax regulation have spawned new Gen-V 'smokers' in Jersey
New Environment Minister "committed" to vape ban
Parents urged to talk with students about "serious issue" of vaping
New stats show rise of Jersey's 'Gen-V' vapers
Ministers to investigate taxing vape products
Goodbye disposable vapes? Ministers announce ban plan
Cigarette butts and vapes among litter pickers' top finds
‘Vape juice’ concerns spark e-cigarette regulation (2018)
Ban on e-cigarettes for under-18s (2015)
Pictured top: The Youth Assembly (Rob Currie).
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