New Zealand is about to impose the world’s toughest ban on the tobacco industry. The New Zealand government plans to ban youth from buying cigarettes. The government argued that other efforts to reduce smoking were taking too long. People under 14 will never be allowed to buy cigarettes in this Pacific country from 2027 onwards. The government aims to cut nicotine levels in all products sold and tobacco.
“We want to ensure that young people never start smoking, so we will make it a crime to sell or supply smokeless tobacco products to new groups of young people,” New Zealand’s Associate Health Minister Ayesha Veral said in a statement.
The government will introduce the law in parliament in June next year with the aim of making it a law by the end of 2022, but before that the government will consult with the Māori health task force in the coming months. The sanctions will then be rolled out in phases from 2024 onwards. This will then reduce the need for nicotine in 2025 and create a “smoke-free” generation by 2027.
Smoking kills approximately 5,000 people in New Zealand each year, making it one of the top causes of preventable death in the country. Four out of five children under the age of 18 start smoking earlier. The government’s move was welcomed by health officials, while retailers expressed concern about the impact on their businesses and suspected the emergence of a black market.