Toughest Tobacco Crackdown: New Zealand To Ban Youth From Buying Cigarettes

Cigarette Ban: With these measures, New Zealand’s retail tobacco industry will become one of the most restricted in the world - second only to Bhutan where cigarette sales are banned. 

New Delhi: In one of the toughest crackdowns on tobacco, New Zealand on Thursday announced its plan to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime.

As per a report by Reuters, the government has taken to this step as other efforts to curb smoking were taking too long.

Proposals unveiled on Thursday revealed that people aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the country and that there will also be restrictions on the number of retailers authorised to sell tobacco and permitted nicotine levels in all products.

“We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products to new cohorts of youth,” Reuters quoted New Zealand Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall as saying in a statement.

“If nothing changes, it would be decades till Māori smoking rates fall below 5 per cent, and this government is not prepared to leave people behind,” the statement added.

As per the report citing government figures, 11.6 per cent of all New Zealanders aged above 15 smoke, the proportion rises to 29 per cent among indigenous Maori adults.

The New Zealand government will consult with a Maori health task force before introducing legislation into parliament in June next year.

The aim is to make it law by the end of 2022, reported Reuters.

Following that, the restrictions will be implemented in stages from 2024. To begin with, there is going to be a sharp reduction in the number of authorised sellers, followed by reduced nicotine requirements in 2025 and the focus on having a “smoke-free” generation from 2027.

With these measures, New Zealand’s retail tobacco industry will become one of the most restricted in the world - second only to Bhutan where cigarette sales are banned. 

As per the New Zealand government, ongoing measures like plain packaging and levies on sales reduced tobacco consumption but stricter measures are required to achieve the goal of less than 5 per cent of the population smoking daily by 2025.

With the new rules, it aims to halve the country’s smoking rates in as few as 10 years from when they the law takes effect.

According to the government, smoking is one of the country’s top causes of preventable death as it kills about 5,000 people a year. Four in five smokers begin before age 18, it stated.