New Zealand aims to be smoke-free by 2025. Smoking is to be banned for an entire generation. This should be concretized with a ban on the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2004, according to the proposal. The government plans to gradually increase the legal smoking age. Consideration is also being given to significantly reducing the permitted nicotine content in tobacco products.
„We need a new approach,“ said Deputy Health Minister Ayesha Verrall yesterday when announcing the changes so that the target can be achieved by 2025.
The proposals were welcomed by a number of public health organizations. „This proposal goes beyond helping people quit,“ Cancer Society executive director Lucy Elwood said in a statement.
Half a million smokes every day
She pointed out that the number of tobacco merchants in low-income communities, where smoking rates are highest, is four times higher. Around 500,000 people smoke every day in the country, which has a population of just under five million. Smoking rates are highest among Maori and Pasifika.
The government’s plans have been criticized for possible unintended consequences such as the bankruptcy of smaller businesses and a larger black market. The New Zealand government is aware of this problem. There is evidence that the amount of tobacco products smuggled into New Zealand has increased significantly in recent years, it said.
