Only in Scotland

I haven't read the smoking and vaping consultation documents in full yet (see previous post), but one thing I did notice was this:

This policy [raising the age of sale by one year every year] will make it an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products (and in Scotland, also an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to purchase tobacco products).

I may be wrong, but buying tobacco – even if you're under age – was never previously an offence in Scotland. Like the rest of the UK, the offender was, and is, the seller not the purchaser.

Does this mean that young adults may in future be prosecuted if they attempt to buy tobacco products in Scotland? Bizarrely, the list includes heated tobacco, a reduced risk product used by smokers to quit.

It also begs the question: will it then become an offence, in Scotland, to smoke tobacco if you're born on or after 1 January 2009?

Imagine, in ten years’ time, being arrested, aged 24, for the ‘crime’ of smoking a cigarette, even in a smoking area or, potentially, your own home.

Is that where this is heading? I think we should be told.