[The proposal, expected to become
law next year, would raise the smoking age year by year until it covers the
entire population.]
The proposed legislation, which is
expected to become law next year, would leave current smokers free to continue
buying cigarettes. But it would gradually raise the smoking age, year by year,
until it covers the entire population.
Starting in 2023, anyone under age
15 would be barred for life from buying cigarettes. So, for instance, in 2050
people 42 and older would still be able to buy tobacco products — but anyone
younger would not.
“We want to make sure young people
never start smoking, so we will make it an offense to sell or supply smoked
tobacco products to new cohorts of youth,” Dr. Ayesha Verrall, the country’s
associate health minister, said in Parliament on Thursday. “People aged 14 when
the law comes into effect will never be able to legally purchase tobacco.”
The legislation was among several
proposals announced on Thursday that aim to reduce smoking levels in New
Zealand across all ethnic groups, including its poorer Indigenous Maori and
Pacific Island citizens, below 5 percent by 2025. Currently the rate is just
under 10 percent.
New Zealand first announced this
target in 2011. Since then, it has steadily raised the price of cigarettes to
among the highest in the world. A pack in New Zealand costs about 30 New
Zealand dollars, or a little over $20, second only to neighboring Australia,
where wages are considerably higher.
Dr. Verrall said the government was
not considering raising prices beyond that point. “We’ve already seen the full
impact of excise tax increases,” she said. “Going further will not help people
quit. It will only further punish smokers who are struggling to kick the
habit.”
Banning tobacco sales, despite the
clear benefits to public health, has been a virtual nonstarter around the
world, with arguments often centering on civil liberties and fears of increased
smuggling. In 2010, the Himalayan nation of Bhutan prohibited the sale of
tobacco products, only to suspend the restrictions last year amid worries that
cigarette traffickers would bring in the coronavirus.
As New Zealand unveiled its
proposal, the government acknowledged the possible effects on the black market,
which currently makes up at least 10 percent of tobacco sales in the country.
It said that smuggling of tobacco
products into New Zealand, particularly by organized crime groups, had been
rising. “The changes proposed in this document may contribute to this problem,”
the government’s proposal notes.
But Dr. Robert Beaglehole, a
professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Auckland, said there were
potential solutions. “We can deal with it, if we only scanned every container
coming into the country, which we don’t,” he said. “The technology is there.”
Since the New Zealand government
began targeting smoking, rates have fallen far below the global average: 9.4 percent of New Zealanders currently smoke, down
from 18 percent in 2008. Around 14 percent of people in the United States smoke,
and roughly
20 percent worldwide.
The rates are not consistent among
the New Zealand population. While the government is likely to meet its target
for white New Zealanders by 2025, it would need to adjust its plans to
sufficiently lower smoking rates among Maori and Pacific Island communities,
Dr. Verrall said.
In addition to the gradual ban on
cigarette sales, the proposed legislation would increase funding for addiction
services, limit where cigarettes can be sold and reduce the amount of nicotine
in cigarettes. Vaping products, which the government has embraced as a safer
alternative, would not be affected by the law.
The proposal did not say how the
ban on sales would be enforced.
The New Zealand government has an
absolute majority in Parliament, so it does not need the support of any
coalition partners to make the proposals into law.
Janet Hoek, a public health expert
at the University of Auckland, said the ban for future generations would help
maintain the country’s gains.
“Once we get to the Smokefree 2025
goal and we’ve reduced smoking prevalence, we want to make sure that’s what the
future looks like as well,” she said. The phased ban on cigarette sales is “one
way of ensuring that this goal, once we reach it, is sustained,” she added.
Dr. Hoek said she hoped New
Zealand’s plans would inspire other countries to pass similarly ambitious
legislation, especially in light of World Health Organization estimates that a
billion people will die of smoking-related causes this century.
“Now that New Zealand has made that
step, I expect many other countries are going to follow suit,” she said. “This
will be something that begins in New Zealand but that really has global
implications.”
