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  [96]New Zealand

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

  The country is believed to be the first to implement an annually rising
  legal smoking age
  A teenage girl sits on stairs smoking a cigarette.
  [ ]
  New Zealand passes world-first legislation to impose an annually rising
  legal smoking age in a bid to become `smoke-free' by 2025 Photograph:
  Mixmike/Getty Images
  New Zealand passes world-first legislation to impose an annually rising
  legal smoking age in a bid to become `smoke-free' by 2025 Photograph:
  Mixmike/Getty Images


  [97]Tess McClure in Auckland
  [98]@tessairini
  Tue 13 Dec 2022 00.16 ESTLast modified on Tue 13 Dec 2022 00.36 EST
    *
    *
    *

  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 [99]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 moves ahead with world-first tobacco laws in bid to create
  smoke-free generation
  Read more

  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 Maori 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 [100]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.
  New Zealand smoking rates fall to lowest on record, but vaping on the
  rise
  Read more

  "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 [101]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.
  Topics
    * [102]New Zealand

    * [103]Asia Pacific
    * [104]Smoking
    * [105]Tobacco industry
    * [106]news

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