New legislation passed by New Zealand parliament will ban future generations from buying cigarettes or tobacco products.
As per the ABC, the new laws will prevent the selling of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. Breaking this law is punishable by fines of up to NZ $150,000, which shakes out to around $141,744 AUD. That’s a lot of money.
The bill was introduced by Health Minister Ayesha Verrall as a step “towards a smoke-free future”, according to the BBC. Get your head around this: by 2040, 30-year-olds will be too young to buy a deck.
“Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be NZ$5 billion ($4.7 billion AUD) better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking,” Verrall said.
November data shows that New Zealand smoking rates are 8 per cent of adults, down from 9.4 per cent the year prior — and down from 16 per cent a decade ago. The hope is to get this down to 5 per cent with the introduction of the new bill, with the idea to be smoke-free completely by 2025.
In addition, the legislation will slash the number of retailers allowed to sell tobacco by 90 per cent — from 6,000 licensed retailers to 600 by the end of 2023. It will also reduce the amount of nicotine allowed in tobacco products with an aim to minimise addiction.
“It means nicotine will be reduced to non-addictive levels and communities will be free from the proliferation and clustering of retailers who target and sell tobacco products in certain areas,” Verrall said, as per BBC.
The libertarian ACT Party opposed the bill, with ACT Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden expressing concerns around an emerging black market. At the moment vaping is more popular than smoking in New Zealand (8.3 per cent), which the bill won’t effect.
Unfortunately, vaping can be more addictive than cigarettes — with some people saying that they turned back to cigarettes to try and quit the vape. Nicotine in general is one hell of an addictive asshole.
