New Zealand announced in the last few months of 2021 that they will ban the sale of tobacco to its next generations. This news comes in a bid to eventually phase out smoking.
Essentially, anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime.
The government have said: “Our Government’s Smokefree goal is that by 2025 less than five percent of New Zealanders will be smokers.”
What is the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan?
The Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan was launched on 9th December 2021. The plan has been designed to accelerate the government’s progress towards a smokefree future and tackle the harm smoked tobacco products cause the people of New Zealand.
Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. This plan has been designed to help those living in Aotearoa’s most disadvantaged communities.
What are the Focus Areas of the Plan?
- Making sure there is Māori leadership and decision-making across all levels of the action plan.
- Funding more health promotion and community activities to motivate and mobilise people across the country to get behind the smokefree goal and to sign-post support for people on their quit journey.
- Giving people the wrap-around support they need on their quit journey by investing in more tailored help such as a stop smoking service for Pacific communities.
- Making it easier to quit and harder to become addicted by only having low-level nicotine smoked tobacco products for sale and restricting product design features that increase their appeal and addictiveness.
- Making smoked tobacco products harder to buy by reducing the number of shops selling them and kickstarting a smokefree generation.
- Making sure the tobacco industry and retailers follow the law.
The new rules will ensure that young people will never have the opportunity to buy cigarettes in their lifetimes. This initiative is something that the New Zealand government calls “one of the toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry”
Anyone born after 2008 will never be allowed to legally purchase cigarettes.
A World First!
New Zealand will become the first country in the world to implement a “tobacco-free generation” policy.
The new law is expected to pass this year, in 2022. It will also restrict the number of retailers authorized to sell tobacco and cut nicotine levels in all products.
Currently, 11% of all New Zealanders over 15 smoke. The plan is to completely eliminate smoking in the country to create a smoke-free generation and reduce the harmful effects.
The new rules have the potential to half the country’s smoking rates in as few as 10 years.
Smoking kills about 5,000 people a year in New Zealand, making it one of the country’s top causes of preventable death. The plan is expected to save NZ$5 billion (£2.58 billion) on future public health spending.
Read more about the plan on the New Zealand Ministry of Health website.
