A law passed by the New Zealand Parliament in December 2022 states that people born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products again. This will reduce the number of people who can legally buy tobacco in New Zealand every year. At the same time, the number of retailers of tobacco products was limited, as well as the reduction of the nicotine level in cigarettes.
Critics of the law said that this would encourage the smuggling of tobacco products and destroy small shops. New Prime Minister Chris Lacson is also among the opponents of the law. His National Party, which won 38 percent of the vote in the Oct. 14 parliamentary election, did not mention anti-smoking laws in its election campaign. The announcement by new finance minister Nicola Willis that the government would scrap the laws shocked health experts.
“We are shocked and outraged … this is an incredibly reactionary step in world-leading, absolutely brilliant health care,” University of Otago tobacco control researcher and public health expert Professor Richard Edwards said. “Most health care groups in New Zealand are shocked at what the government has done and are calling for a rethink,” he told the BBC.
New Zealand had its lowest smoking rate in history last year, with just 8 per cent of adults smoking daily, the Office for National Statistics showed. In 2021, this indicator was 9.4 percent. Officials hoped to reduce that to 5 percent by 2025, with a long-term goal of complete eradication. It is believed that such measures could save up to 5,000 lives every year. It is reported that more than 80 thousand New Zealand adults quit smoking last year. About 8 percent of New Zealand adults currently smoke.
The New Zealand initiative once inspired Great Britain, whose government this fall announced a similar plan to combat youth smoking. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the decision remains in place, despite New Zealand’s sudden policy change.
2023-11-27 19:26:30
#Zealand #smokers #unexpected #gift
