While public health experts have generally welcomed the New Zealand plan, not everybody is happy. In the US, the federal minimum age to buy tobacco products was raised from 18 to 21 two years ago. New Zealand’s approach to ban the next generation from tobacco smoking hasn’t been tried elsewhere, she said.īut she said studies have shown youth sales decrease when minimum ages are raised.
Verrall said there was some evidence of a rise in youth vaping, a trend she is following “really closely.” The sale of vaping products is already restricted to those aged 18 and over in New Zealand and vaping is banned in schools. “We think vaping’s a really appropriate quit tool,” she said. Verrall said that tobacco smoking is far more harmful and remains a leading cause of preventable deaths in New Zealand, killing up to 5,000 people each year. “It’s really hard to quit and we feel if we did that, we’d be punishing those people who are addicted to cigarettes even more.”Īnd she said the tax measures tend to place a higher burden on lower-income people, who are more likely to smoke. “We don’t think tax increases will have any further impact,” Verrall said. Under the government’s plan, a taskforce would be created to help reduce smoking among Maori.īig tax increases have already been imposed on cigarettes in recent years and some question why they aren’t hiked even higher. The daily rate among Indigenous Maori remains much higher at 22 percent. Smoking rates have steadily fallen in New Zealand for years, with only about 11 percent of adults now smoking and 9 percent smoking every day. Being short of breath, caused by tobacco.” “You meet, every day, someone facing the misery caused by tobacco,” Verrall said. Ayesha Verrall, who is spearheading the plan, said her work at a public hospital in Wellington involved telling several smokers they had developed cancer. In an interview with The Associated Press, New Zealand’s Associate Health Minister Dr. The changes would be brought in over time to help retailers adjust.īecause the current minimum age to buy cigarettes in New Zealand is 18, the lifetime smoking ban for youth wouldn’t have an impact for a few years. Other parts of the plan include allowing only the sale of tobacco products with very low nicotine levels and slashing the number of stores that can sell them. Indeed, the plan sets a goal of having fewer than 5 percent of New Zealanders smoking by 2025. In practice, officials hope smoking will fade away decades before then. That means, in theory at least, 65 years after the law takes effect, shoppers could still buy cigarettes - but only if they could prove they were at least 80 years old. Under a new law the government announced Thursday and plans to pass next year, the minimum age to buy cigarettes would keep rising year after year. WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand’s government believes it has come up with a unique plan to end tobacco smoking - a lifetime ban for those aged 14 or younger.
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