New Zealand passes world-first tobacco law to ban smoking for next generation

[benfica_77]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/13/new-zealand-passes-world-first-tobacco-law-to-ban-smoking-by-2025

New Zealand has introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those aged 14 and under from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes in world-first legislation to outlaw smoking for the next generation.

Associate health minister Ayesha Verrall said at the law’s passing on Tuesday: “Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be $5bn better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking, such as numerous types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, amputations.”

New Zealand is believed to be the first country in the world to implement the annually rising smoking age, ensuring tobacco cannot be sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.

It will be accompanied by a slew of other measures to make smoking less affordable and accessible, including dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and forcing them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than corner stores and supermarkets.

The country has also increased funding for health services and campaigns, and rolled out quitting services specifically for Māori and Pacific communities.

The number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes will be reduced to a tenth of their existing levels – from 6,000 to just 600 nationwide. The laws passed their final reading on Tuesday evening, and will come into force in 2023, as New Zealand attempts to reach its goal of making the country “smoke-free” by 2025.

While introducing the law for its first reading in July, Verrall said: “For decades we have permitted tobacco companies to maintain their market share by making their deadly product more and more addictive. It is disgusting and it is bizarre. We have more regulations in this country on the safety of the sale of a sandwich than on a cigarette.

“We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products to new cohorts of youth. People aged 14 when the law comes into effect will never be able to legally purchase tobacco.”

“Smoking rates are plummeting,” she added. “Our goal of being smoke-free by 2025 is within reach.”

The new laws, however, will not restrict vape sales. Data indicates that at least some New Zealanders haveswapped their nicotine habit from cigarettes to vapes.

Data released in November showed the number of people smoking daily had fallen to 8% – down from 9.4% last year – marking the lowest rates since records began.

The rise in daily vape users, however, was larger than the drop in daily smokers: 8.3% of adults are now vaping daily, up from 6.2% in the past year.

[benfica_77]

I wonder if this also means Cigars too? 

Do you think there will be a ban in Cigars in your country within the next Decade? 

[BrightonCorgi]

1 hour ago, benfica_77 said:

I wonder if this also means Cigars too? 

Do you think there will be a ban in Cigars in your country within the next Decade? 

This is just the beginning.  Same type of laws will go into every aspect of life.

[Blakes]

Viva La Revolucion! 

[SCgarman]

1 hour ago, benfica_77 said:

I wonder if this also means Cigars too? 

Do you think there will be a ban in Cigars in your country within the next Decade? 

They are concentrating on cigarettes, but in fact vaping has far surpassed any other form of smoking. And how many teenagers desire/can afford the price of cigars with the current pricing? Hell, many here with far more disposable income have stopped buying or made alternative choices. I have never seen a teen in a walk in humidor picking out a few nice hand rolled cigars, ever.

[Ford2112]

Prohibition never works. I don't see this going well. Boy I'm glad I'm not of this latest generation. What a bunch of candy asses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cigaraholic]

If your lucky like I was, when your 15 you bring your mother with you to the tobacconist to buy the cigars 🌈

[NSXCIGAR]

Hope these Kiwis like organized crime. 

[Hammer Smokin']

I know New Zealand allows for medical use of cannabis. I've heard they are moving to legalization in the next five years. Another example of Tobacco is the devil. Cannabis is the saviour, lol. 

What a world we live in. 

[garbandz]

I guess you are considered  an adult  there, if you are 16 years old.

still waaaaay too young to smoke..

Do a lot of 10 to 13 year olds want to smoke cigarettes ?

what is their legal drinking age,12 ?

[Corylax18]

Heros. The lot of them. Protecting children and innocent adults alike! This is going to work perfectly. I can't see any flaw in it. Hopefully they'll extend these protections to anything, that could ever harm anyone, in anyway. Bans on Cars, alcohol, electricity, air. Anything that has any potential to harm anyone, in any scenario should be subject to the same bans. We simply won't be able to survive without these laws "protecting" us from everything. 

[Fuzz]

Ban procreation. If you're never born, you can't die from something.

[Edicion]

If they really want to make a difference why not ban sugar, alcohol, trans fat foods, food additives, chips & fries, refined oils. 

[BoliDan]

Wooo! Who wants to set up a black market with me? We will surely be only ones to think of it.

[JohnS]

1 hour ago, Edicion said:

If they really want to make a difference why not ban sugar, alcohol, trans fat foods, food additives, chips & fries, refined oils. 

Yes, indeed this is the number one cause of modern day illness as we age. Well said! 

[Jamie117]

On 12/14/2022 at 1:17 AM, benfica_77 said:

I wonder if this also means Cigars too? 

Do you think there will be a ban in Cigars in your country within the next Decade? 

Kiwi here. By "smoke-free" they mean getting the adult smoking rate below 5% - it will be a good while before they could actually stamp it out completely.

Cigars are not differentiated from cigarettes in terms of restrictions here, except that they are taxed by weight instead of number, at a very similar rate to Aussie. We do have one or two vocal cigar industry members putting petitions before the government etc, and the CRA (Cigar Rights Assoc?) in the States posted an open letter to our govt denouncing the new proposed regulations.

That all being said, I still get cigars over the border legally for half the local price, even if they get stung by the import duty and taxes. Most of the time they don't. However they are now talking about potentially changing the laws so that all cigar imports must be either sea or air freight, making it significantly more of a hassle (and I assume much more expensive) to get them here. If they do this then every order will be charged duty and tax because they come in through the ports rather than international mail centres. However when they implemented this change for "water pipe tobacco" a little while ago they drastically dropped the duty rate which compensated a bit. So swings and roundabouts 🤷

 

22 hours ago, garbandz said:

I guess you are considered  an adult  there, if you are 16 years old.

still waaaaay too young to smoke..

Do a lot of 10 to 13 year olds want to smoke cigarettes ?

what is their legal drinking age,12 ?

The smoking age is 18 here, where are you getting 16? Drinking age is also 18. High school-age kids smokin g cigarettes was much more common ten years ago when I was that age, but now it's very rare. That being said it's all changed to vaping now as the figures show

[dicko]

I'm sure there will be a reasonable exemption for cigars carved out in the legislation...right? Right?

Absolute clown world. Australia and NZ are full of world firsts for draconian laws

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

[Lunettesman]

NZ, after the COVID shit show, they show once again how democratic and free they are. 

[PigFish]

… they might add mRNA injections!

 

[BrightonCorgi]

11 hours ago, Edicion said:

If they really want to make a difference why not ban sugar, alcohol, trans fat foods, food additives, chips & fries, refined oils. 

It's coming.

[benfica_77]

FOH - Fries of Habanos selling grey market french fries ....what a strange world we could be living in soon. 

[Cairo]

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

Somebody really smart said that once....

 

[SCgarman]

18 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Ban procreation. If you're never born, you can't die from something.

You can laugh at this, but here in the US the "green new deal" climate change whakos really want people to stop reproducing. To save the Earth. You just can't make this sh*t up!

[Hammer Smokin']

the earth's overpopulation is not a concept only understood by the "green new deal" folk. 

that is understood by a large % of the population. 

[Bigkahuna]

This is only the beginning. This type of mandate by legislation will only increase. The odd part is that governments are dependent on that tax from alcohol, tobacco etc. I simply see the tax rates rising to accommodate the drop in demand. Stock up now boys 😆