The new law on protection from tobacco and nicotine products has passed its first reading in Parliament. Beyond conventional cigarettes, it covers e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and new nicotine products for the first time - and brings stricter rules for terraces, a ban on smoking in the presence of children, and a complete ban on advertising, including on social media.

The numbers behind the law explain why someone was in a hurry. According to the Health Ministry, tobacco takes over 3,600 lives a year here and causes economic damage of over 600 million euros. And what's most worrying - 13.6 percent of young people aged 13-15 already use tobacco or nicotine, 57 percent of pupils are exposed to smoke in enclosed spaces, and 73 percent of young smokers admit that no one ever stopped them from buying cigarettes despite the age limit.

It is that last figure that is the state's harshest criticism of itself. An age-limit law has existed for years - but when three quarters of underage smokers say they were never stopped, the question isn't whether rules are missing, but whether anyone enforces the ones that already exist. A new law is easy to write; the check at the corner shop counter is another matter.

Health Minister Azir Aliu announced the law with the message that "health has no price and no alternative". It sounds good in a session - but the real test won't be in Parliament, but in front of the first kiosk selling cigarettes to a fifteen-year-old. Whether this law will be any different from the last, or just one more good intention on paper, won't be decided by the vote, but by the enforcement.