New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes for life

NewZealandplans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime in one of the world's toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry, arguing that other efforts to extinguish smoking were taking too long.

People aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the Pacific country of five million, part of proposals unveiled on Thursday that will also curb the number of retailers authorized to sell tobacco and cut nicotine levels in all products.

The ban will remain in place for the rest of the person's life. That means a person aged 60 in 2073 will be banned from buying cigarettes, while a person aged 61 would be allowed to do so.

"We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products tonewcohorts of youth,"NewZealandAssociate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said in a statement.

"If nothing changes, it would be decades till Mori smoking rates fall below 5 per cent, and this government is not prepared to leave people behind."

Currently, 11.6 per centof allNewZealanders aged over 15 smoke, a proportion that rises to 29 per centamong Indigenous Maori adults, according to government figures.

The government will consult with a Maori health task force in the coming months before introducing legislation into parliament in June next year, with the aim of making it law by the end of 2022.

WATCH | Proposed New Zealand law aims to create a 'smoke-free generation':

New Zealand law aimed at making 'smoke-free generation'

3 years ago

Duration 2:02

New Zealand's government has proposed a new law aimed at making a 'smoke-free generation' in four years by making it illegal for anyone who turns 14 after 2027 to buy cigarettes ever.

The restrictions would then be rolled out in stages from 2024, beginning with a sharp reduction in the number of authorized sellers, followed by reduced nicotine requirements in 2025 and the creation of the "smoke-free" generation from 2027.

Tough steps needed, government says

The package of measures will makeNewZealand's retail tobacco industry one of the most restricted in the world, just behind Bhutan where cigarette sales are banned outright.NewZealand's neighbour Australia was the first country in the world to mandate plain packaging of cigarettes in 2012.

Canada did the same, phasing inplain packagingin late 2019.

TheNewZealandgovernment said while existing measures like plain packaging and levies on sales had slowed tobacco consumption, the tougher steps were necessary to achieve its goal of fewer than 5 per cent of the population smoking daily by 2025.

Thenewrules would halve the country's smoking rates in as few as 10 years from when they take effect, the government said.

Smoking kills about 5,000 people a year inNewZealand, making it one of the country's top causes of preventable death. Four in five smokers started before age 18, the country's government said.

Black market concerns

Health authorities welcomed the crackdown, while retailers expressed concern about the impact on their businesses and warned of the emergence of a black market.

The government did not give specifics about how thenewrules would be policed or whether and how they would apply to visitors to the country.

"Cigarette smoking kills 14NewZealanders every day and two out of three smokers will die as a result of smoking," saidNewZealandMedical Association chair Alistair Humphrey in a statement.

"This action plan offers some hope of realizing our 2025 Smokefree Aotearoa goal, and keeping our tamariki (Maori children) smokefree."

However, the Dairy and Business Owners Group, a lobby group for local convenience stores, known inNewZealandas dairies, said while it supported a smoke-free country, the government's plan would destroy many businesses.

"This is all 100 per cent theory and zero per cent substance," the group's chairman, Sunny Kaushal, told Stuff.co.nz. "There's going to be a crime wave. Gangs and criminals will fill the gap with ciggie houses alongside tinnie houses."