Smoke-Free in New Zealand in 2025
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Smoke-free is the healthiest choice you can make as an individual, and now a whole country is set to become smoke-free. The New Zealand government is set to ban the sales of cigarettes for all future generations, as the country’s goal is to be smoke-free by 2025.
The cigarette prohibition is geared towards anyone aged 14 and under who will not ever buy tobacco legally in New Zealand.
“This is for all of the patients I have ever cared for who have been sick and or who have died due to tobacco – this one’s for you,” Ayesha Verrall, New Zealand’s associate minister of health, said on her personal Twitter.
Today, smoking cigarettes is still the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand. It is the cause of one in four cancers, and it is responsible for 4,000 to 5,000 smoking-related premature deaths each year.
Healthcare workers think that the recent crackdowns will efficiently eliminate smoking throughout the country, crediting New Zealand as the first country to be smoke-free.
The government healthcare workers said that support methods would be introduced to aid those trying to end their pesky smoking habits.
Smoke-Free Legislation
The government will also take the proper measures to reduce legal nicotine levels in smokable tobacco, drastically eliminating the number of stores allowed to sell them.
According to a government study, smoking in adults has declined from 18% in 2006 to 11.6% by 2020.
However, the smoking rates are a lot higher in New Zealand’s Pasifika and Māori populations—18.3% and 28.7%, respectively—that is also why it is critical to apply this ban.
Although, what will not be included in this legislation is a vaping ban, where vaping is about two to three times more prevalent than smoking in the country.
A study from 2019 showed that 10% of students surveyed vaped regularly, or students who do it at least once a month. In addition, more than 49% of these students had never smoked before vaping.
Several health experts have praised the government’s recent legislation. However, Karen Chour, the chairman of New Zealand’s opposing right-wing ACT party, called these new policy changes “bad policymaking.”
A new policy to implement the ban will be enacted sometime next year in 2022 to give business owners time to transition to a new business model.