New Zealand will ban the sale of cigarettes to future generations

New Zealand plans to ban young people from buying cigarettes for their entire lives, in one of the world’s toughest measures against the tobacco industry, arguing that other efforts to end smoking were taking too long.

People aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be able to buy cigarettes again in this Pacific country of 5 million people, as part of proposals presented Thursday, which will also limit the number of retailers authorized to sell tobacco and reduce prices. nicotine levels in all products.

“We want to make sure that young people never start smoking, so we will make it a crime to sell or supply tobacco products for smoking to new cohorts of young people.New Zealand Deputy Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said in a statement.

“If nothing changes, it will be decades until Maori smoking rates drop below 5% and this government is unwilling to leave the people behind.”.

Today, 11.6% of all New Zealanders over the age of 15 smoke, a proportion that rises to 29% among indigenous Maori adults, according to government figures.

The government will consult with a working group on Maori health in the coming months before introducing the legislation in parliament in June next year, with the goal of signing it into law by the end of 2022.

The restrictions will be applied in stages starting in 2024, starting with a strong limitation to the number of authorized sellers, followed by a reduction in nicotine requirements in 2025 and the creation of the generation “without smoke”From 2027.

The package of measures will make New Zealand’s tobacco retail sector one of the most restricted in the world, behind only Bhutan, where the sale of cigarettes is totally banned. New Zealand’s neighbor Australia was the first country in the world to impose plain packaging for cigarettes in 2012.