New Zealand BANS smoking: Radical new laws will stop young people from EVER buying cigarettes
>
New Zealand has banned the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008 in a landmark bid to eradicate smoking.
The legislation, which passed Tuesday night, will also reduce the number of outlets that can sell cigarettes and reduce the nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels.
“Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be $5 billion ($A4.7 billion) better off not needing to treat illnesses caused by smoking,” said Deputy Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. .
The movement to block access to people born after January 1, 2009 (virtually anyone 14 and under right now) aims to create a smoke-free generation.
New Zealand’s target is less than five per cent of adults who smoke regularly by 2025.
New Zealand bans young people from buying cigarettes under a rolling program to make the entire country smoke-free by 2025
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the world’s first measures “huge”.
“I hope New Zealand can be really proud of what is happening here in parliament, the momentum going forward on our Smokefree New Zealand goals and the Smokefree generation,” she said.
“That is hugely innovative and a real credit to the Minister and the Smokefree community who have been working so hard on such ideas in this bill.”
New Zealand’s eradication target was set in 2011 and has made steady progress towards the target.
A decade ago, 16.4% of Kiwis smoked daily. In 2020, that number fell to 9.4 percent and last year it was eight percent.
With daily smoking rates being highest among Maori (19.9%) and Pacific Peoples (18.2%), Dr. Verrall said reducing the smoking rate was important for health equity .
‘These measures… will close the life expectancy gap for Maori women by 25 per cent and by 10 per cent for Maori men,’ she said.
Anyone under the age of 14 will be banned from buying cigarettes, and an additional age group will be added to the ban list each year until it is made illegal for the entire country.
The Smokefree target was funded by a government led by National, but the centre-right opposition party decided not to support the legislation on Tuesday.
Opposition health spokesman Shane Reti said National supported nicotine reduction but said the new law would devastate local shops, known as dairies, which depended on income from cigarette sales.
Under the new law, the number of retailers allowed to sell cigarettes will be reduced from around 6,000 today to 600 by the end of 2023.
Dr. Reti said the bill would shut down “corner dairies for the sake of experimental virtue-signaling initiatives.”
‘Our position on this bill has been to achieve nicotine reduction with as little collateral damage as possible. Sounds reasonable, right? he said.
Dr Verrall attacked his opposition, saying that “traditionally, we have had bipartisan support for Smokefree and the National has in the past been prepared to accept tough votes for the Smokefree goal.”
“I don’t understand how Dr. Reti can continue to trust his medical credibility as National’s health spokesperson.”
The Green and Maori Party also voted in favor of the bill, while ACT also opposed it.
Amid falling smoking rates, vaping use is growing.
The latest figures reveal that 8.3% of Kiwi adults vape daily, up from 6.2% the year before.
NEW ZEALAND’S RADICAL PLAN TO COMBAT SMOKING
Under the law, young people under the age of 14 will never be able to buy cigarettes in New Zealand.
Each year that age limit will increase, expanding the percentage of the population that will never be able to legally smoke.
The minimum age to purchase cigarettes in New Zealand remains 18 for the time being.
The government is also restricting the number of stores authorized to sell cigarettes.
Each year an additional age group will be added to the ban list until it is made illegal for the entire nation under New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Adern’s radical plan (pictured)
Only 600 across the country will receive a license, similar to a bottle shop’s license to sell alcohol.
The nicotine concentration in cigarettes is also being reduced in an attempt to combat their addiction.
Cigarette prices rose 10 percent each year between 2011 and 2020, but that alone didn’t stop smokers.
Eventually, with existing smokers dying, health officials hope to see the entire country smoke-free.
The move comes as a new poll reveals that a majority of Australians want a complete ban on all cigarette sales in stores.
“The new laws will mean that only smoking tobacco products containing very low levels of nicotine can be sold, with a significant reduction in the number of stores that can sell them.”
The new rules will not take effect immediately to allow retailers to stop relying on cigarette sales, Dr. Verrall said.
The national target is for just five per cent or less of the New Zealand population to continue smoking by 2025.
As part of the strategy, cigarette prices increased 10 percent each year for the 10 years between 2011 and 2020, but no further tax increases are now proposed.
Australia has taken similar steps to curb cigarette consumption and has led the world with its simple packaging and shocking warnings (pictured)
Rising prices have seen the creation of a black market for cigarettes and there has also been an increase in crime with groups targeting stores that sell cigarettes.
A 20-pack of Marlboro cigarettes in New Zealand now costs around NZ$33, but that strategy alone was not having the impact needed to reach the 2025 target.
The New Zealand Medical Association said it was delighted that the next generation would not join the more than 80 per cent of smokers who wish they had never started.
“The smoke-free policy will be a defining moment,” NZMA Chairman Dr Alistair Humphrey said on Thursday.
‘Cigarette smoking kills 14 New Zealanders every day and two out of three smokers will die as a result of smoking.
“This action plan offers some hope of achieving our 2025 Smokefree goal.”
A new survey published by the Medical Journal of Australia last month now supports a full ban on cigarette sales as the next step in the war on smoking.
Australia has taken similar steps to curb cigarette consumption and has led the world with its plain packaging and powerful warnings.
But a survey published by the Medical Journal of Australia last month now backs a full ban on cigarette sales as the next step in the war on smoking.
Nearly 53 percent of those surveyed supported phasing out all cigarette sales at retail outlets.
“Sometimes the public gets ahead of politics,” tobacco expert Coral Gartner, an associate professor at the University of Queensland, wrote in the MJA.
‘Cigarettes do not meet modern consumer product safety standards.’
She said New Zealand’s proposals were “innovative and make Australia look like we are lagging behind”.
A 20-pack of Marlboro cigarettes in New Zealand now costs around NZ$33, but the price increase strategy did not have the necessary impact to reach the 2025 target.
“We need to start having the same talks in Australia now because there are details that need to be taken into account,” he added.
‘We don’t want to criminalize people, and we don’t want people with addictions to have a hard time quitting and finding an illicit supply.
“Therefore, we must begin to investigate now and consult on acceptable alternative options.”
Retail tobacco sales are controlled by individual states and territories in Australia.
In 2012, Tasmania considered a ban similar to New Zealand’s, with a proposal to ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2000.
A parliamentary committee found that there was no “significant legal impediment”, but the plan was never signed into law.