The successful passage of the 2026 Tobacco and Vapes Act into law is a major milestone on the journey towards achieving the tobacco endgame – where no one starts to smoke, everyone who smokes is supported to quit, and there is no longer any profit in tobacco. The last point is crucial: the global tobacco industry is not only responsible for an epidemic that kills more than eight million people a year, but has also been relentless in using its financial influence to block or delay tobacco control measures. The act’s headline measure is to make it illegal, from the beginning of next year, to sell tobacco products, herbal smoking products and cigarette papers to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009. Proxy sales are also covered, though purchase and possession will not be crimes. Internal documents from forty years ago that Philip Morris was forced to release describe the company’s fear that raising the age of sale to 21 in the US would ‘gut our key young adult market’.…