New Zealand Will Prohibit The Sale Of Cigarettes For Upcoming Generations
Update: 2021-12-11 10:38 IST
New Zealand Will Prohibit The Sale Of Cigarettes For Upcoming Generations
New Zealand proposes to prohibit young people from purchasing cigarettes in their lives, in one of the strongest anti-tobacco measures in the world, claiming that earlier initiatives to eliminate smoking were taking too long.In the Pacific country of 5 million people, individuals aged 14 and under will never be permitted to purchase cigarettes in 2027, as part of proposals revealed on Thursday. It will also limit the number of outlets authorised to sell tobacco and reduce nicotine levels in all items.
New Zealand Associate Minister of HealthAyesha Verrall said in a statement ensuring that young people do not start smoking, we shall make it illegal to sell or offer smoked tobacco products to new groups of teenagers. If situation remain same, it will take decades for Maori smoking rates to fall below 5%, and this government will not abandon its people.
According to official data, 11.6 percent of all New Zealanders aged 15 and up smoke, with indigenous Maori adults smoking at a rate of 29 percent. In the next months, the government will engage with a Maori health task force before presenting legislation in parliament in June of next year, with the goal of passing it by the end of 2022. Beginning in 2024, the limits would be phased in, starting with a steep fall in the quantity of authorised vendors, proceeded by lower nicotine requirements in 2025, and the establishment of the 'smoke-free' generation in 2027. New Zealand's retail tobacco industry will become one of the most restrictive in the world, second only to Bhutan, where cigarette sales are outright prohibited. In 2012, Australia, New Zealand's neighbour, became the first country in the world to require plain packaging of cigarettes.
While existing efforts like as plain packaging and sales taxes had lowered tobacco usage, the New Zealand government warned that stricter measures were required to meet the country's objective of lower than 5% of the population smoking daily by 2025. The new laws might reduce smoking rates in the country by half in as little as ten years after they go into force. In New Zealand, smoking kills over 5,000 people each year, making it one of the country's leading causes of preventable mortality. Four out of every five smokers began when they were under the age of eighteen.
The United Kingdom, like New Zealand, has established a goal to be smoke-free by 2030, while Canada and Sweden have set objectives to reduce smoking prevalence to fewer than 5% of their populations.
Retailers and cigarette industries expressed alarm about the impact on their businesses and warned of the formation of a black market, while health officials praised the action. The government provided no information on how the new restrictions would be enforced or whether they would extend to foreign visitors. Despite the Dairy and Business Owners Group, a lobbying group for local convenience stores, supports a smoke-free country, it believes the government's plan will put many companies out of business.