The new legislation means that the minimum smoking age will rise annually
(Picture: PA Media)New Zealand has imposed a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes in a bid to phase out smoking.
The world-first legislation means that the minimum smoking age rises annually, ensuring that tobacco cannot be sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is part of a nationwide goal of having fewer than 5 per cent of New Zealanders smoking by 2025.
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. The changes would be brought in over time to help retailers adjust.
Associate health minister Ayesha Verrall said at the law’s passing on Tuesday: “Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be $5bn better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking, such as numerous types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, amputations.”
Smoking rates have steadily fallen in New Zealand for years, with only about 11 per cent of adults now smoking and 9 per cent smoking every day. The daily rate among Indigenous Maori remains much higher, at 22 per cent. Under the government’s plan, a taskforce would be created to help reduce smoking among Maori.
Ms Verrall, who is spearheading the plan, said her work at a public hospital in Wellington involved telling several smokers they had developed cancer.
“You meet, every day, someone facing the misery caused by tobacco,” Ms Verrall said. “The most horrible ways people die. Being short of breath, caused by tobacco.”
Big tax increases have already been imposed on cigarettes in recent years and some question why they aren’t hiked even higher.
“We don’t think tax increases will have any further impact,” Ms Verrall said. “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.”
She said the tax measures tend to place a higher burden on lower-income people, who are more likely to smoke.
The new law wouldn’t impact vaping. 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.
“We think vaping’s a really appropriate quit tool,” she said.
