A completely smoke-free future. This is the goal of the New Zealand government, which has announced a rigorous action plan: the gradual increase in the age at which it becomes legal to smoke (which could even become the ban on selling cigarettes to anyone born after 2004), the significant reduction of the level of nicotine allowed in tobacco products, a minimum price for the sale of tobacco and the limitation of the places where it is possible to sell cigarettes and the like.
“About 4,500 New Zealanders die each year from tobacco,” explained Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. Smoking is responsible for one in four cancer deaths in New Zealand. “We need to make progress quickly to be able to reach the goal of becoming smoke-free by 2025. We need a new approach.”
The anti-smoking plan has been welcomed by many public health organizations. As explained by the CEO of Cancer Society, Lucy Elwood, the number of tobacco retailers is four times higher in low-income communities, where the number of smokers is higher. “These blatant inequities are why we need to protect future generations from the harms of tobacco,” he said. “Tobacco is the most harmful consumer product in history and must be phased out gradually.”
Smoking rates are also higher among Maori and Pasifika New Zealanders. “For too long the tobacco industry has made our people addicted, depriving her of her money before having to bury her, ”said Shane Kawenata Bradbrook, who has long argued for the need to free Maori communities from smoking. “I can’t wait to really make smoking a sunset sector in this corner of the world.”
Ma there are also those who criticize this initiative, fearing the failure of small dairy shops (which also sell tobacco) and the possibility of feeding a black market. Right-wing political party ACT also said that decreasing nicotine content could lead smokers to buy more cigarettes and smoke. There are also those who wonder whether it is right that the government should interfere so much in people’s choices.
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