The New Zealand government is set to permanently ban smoking for anyone born after 2008. The government believes that previous restrictions put in place to limiting young people's access to tobacco does not have enough of an effect.
Neutral packaging, high prices or a ban on smoking in bars… In recent years, New Zealand has toughened the tone of its anti-smoking policy, responsible for 5,000 deaths per year in this island nation of five million people. However, these efforts are not enough. The government therefore wants to go further and simply plans to ban young people from buying cigarettes.
Jacinda Ardern's government wants to present a bill to Parliament next June with the aim that the text will be applicable before the end of the year.
In detail, restrictions would be put in place in stages from 2024 , starting with a sharp reduction in the number of authorized sellers:500 against more than 8,000 today. The following year, the government will also limit the types of cigarettes that can be sold in the country. Concretely, only tobacco with a low nicotine content will become the norm.
Then followed the creation of this famous "tobacco-free" generation. Assuming that the first cigarette is smoked in adolescence, people under the age of nineteen in 2027 (therefore born after 2008) will no longer be authorized to buy them from that same year. Then it will expand to under 20 in 2028, then under 21 in 2029, etc. As you have understood, the threshold will then be modified each year so that a generation is no longer exposed to tobacco.
“We want to make sure young people never start smoking . So we're legislating for a smoke-free generation by making it an offense to sell or supply tobacco products to people aged fourteen when the law comes into force “said New Zealand health official Dr Ayesha Verrall. “As they age, they and future generations will therefore never be able to legally buy tobacco “.
At the same time, older people who smoke yet will also find new public health awareness efforts to get them to quit smoking.
The government still has to answer certain questions, in particular that of the penalty for illegal tobacco consumption. Lawmakers will also need to consider how laws will be enforced to prevent the formation of an illicit tobacco market.
