New Zealand passes a law to totally ban cigarettes

New Zealand will prohibit the sale of tobacco to children under the age of 18, in an effort to eventually eliminate smoking from the country. Anyone born after 2008 will be unable to purchase cigarettes or tobacco products for the rest of their lives, according to a law that is expected to be passed next year.

In a statement, Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verall stated, "We want to ensure that young people never start smoking."

New Zealand's health ministry announced a sweeping crackdown on smoking on Thursday, and this measure is a part of it.

Doctors and other health professionals in the country have praised the "world-leading" reforms, which will reduce access to tobacco and limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.

It will assist people in quitting smoking or switching to less harmful products, and it will reduce the likelihood that young people will become addicted to nicotine, according to University of Otago Professor Janet Hook.

The crackdown has elicited a variety of responses.

"I think it's a really good move," one man told the news agency Reuters. "Because there are a lot of immature kids walking around with cigarettes in their mouths right now," says the author. The general public has inquired as to where they are getting these cigarettes.

"It's also beneficial to me personally because it allows me to save more money."

On the other hand, others have expressed concern that the move could lead to the development of a black market for tobacco - something that the health ministry's official impact statement acknowledges, noting that "customs will require more resources to enforce border control."

"This is all theory with zero substance," Sunny Kaushal, chairman of the Dairy and Business Owners Group, a lobby group for local convenience stores, said the New Zealand news website.

"This is all theory with zero substance." "There's going to be a crime wave," says the author. Gangs and criminals will step in to fill the void."

In order to reach its national goal of reducing its national smoking rate to 5 percent by 2025, New Zealand has set a long-term goal of eliminating smoking altogether.

Currently, 13 percent of New Zealand's adults smoke, with the rate being significantly higher among the indigenous Maori population, where it accounts for nearly a third of the population. Maoris also have a higher incidence of disease and death than the general population.

According to New Zealand's health ministry, smoking is responsible for one in every four cancers and is the leading preventable reason of death among the country's five million residents. For more than a decade, legislators have targeted the industry as a source of corruption.

As part of the crackdown declared on Thursday, the administration also implemented significant tobacco controls, including especially limiting where cigarettes can be sold to keep them out of supermarkets and corner stores, among other things.

According to officials, the number of shops authorised to sell cigarettes will be drastically reduced from approximately 8,000 to less than 500.

Smoking electronic cigarettes, which emit a vapour that contains nicotine, has become far more popular among younger generations in recent years, surpassing smoking as a mode of tobacco consumption.

The health authorities in New Zealand, on the other hand, warn that vaping is not risk-free. Researchers have also discovered potentially hazardous, cancer-causing agents in e-cigarette liquids.

However, in 2017, the country approved the use of vaping to assist smokers to quit.