Pro-smoking campaigners challenge plan to raise age limit for buying cigarettes

Simon Clark, the director of Forest, described the proposal to increase the smoking age to 21 as “a distraction from the real issues” facing the country. File picture: iStock Photo

Pro-smoking campaigners have vowed to fight government plans to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes and tobacco from 18 to 21.

Smokers' rights group Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) said it would challenge what it called “creeping prohibition” following confirmation that the Health Minister plans to seek government approval for the move before the end of May.