New Zealand BANS smoking: Radical new laws will stop young people from EVER buying cigarettes

New Zealand has banned the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008 in a landmark attempt to eradicate smoking.

The legislation, which passed late on Tuesday, will also slash the number of outlets able to sell cigarettes and cut nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels.

‘Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be $5 billion ($A4.7 billion) better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking,’ Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said.

The move to lock out access to people born after January 1, 2009 – practically anyone 14 or younger at the moment – is aimed at creating a Smokefree generation.

NZ’s target is fewer than five per cent of adults regularly smoking by 2025.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the world-first measures were ‘huge’.

‘I hope New Zealand feels really proud of what’s happening here in parliament, the forward momentum on our Smokefree New Zealand goals and the Smokefree generation,’ she said.

‘That is hugely innovative and a real credit to the minister and the Smokefree community which have been working so hard on on such ideas in this bill.’

NZ’s eradication goal was set back in 2011 and has made steady progress towards the goal.

A decade ago, 16.4 per cent of Kiwis smoked daily. In 2020, that figure fell to 9.4 per cent and last year, it was eight per cent.

As daily smoking rates are higher among Maori (19.9 per cent) and Pacific peoples (18.2 per cent), Dr Verrall said lowering the smoking rate were important for health equity.

‘These measures … will close the life expectancy gap for Maori women by 25 per cent and by 10 per cent for Maori men,’ she said.

The Smokefree goal was founded by a National-led government but the opposition centre-right party chose not to support the legislation on Tuesday.

Opposition health spokesman Shane Reti said National supported nicotine reduction, but said the new law would devastate local stores – known as dairies – which relied on income from selling cigarettes.

Under the new law, the number of retailers that can sell cigarettes will drop from about 6000 at present to 600 by the end of 2023.

Dr Reti said the bill would close ‘corner dairies for the sake of virtue-signalling experimental initiatives’.

‘Our position on this bill has been to achieve nicotine reduction with the least collateral damage possible. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?’ he said.

Dr Verrall attacked their opposition, saying ‘traditionally, we’ve had bipartisan support for Smokefree and National has been prepared in the past to take difficult votes for the Smokefree goal’.

‘I don’t understand how Dr. Reti can rely on his medical credibility as National’s health spokesperson anymore.’

The Greens and Maori Party also voted for the bill, while ACT was also opposed.

Amid smoking rates falling, vaping use is growing.

The latest figures reveal 8.3 per cent of Kiwi adults vape daily, up from 6.2 per cent the previous year.

The move comes as a new poll reveals most Australians want a total ban on all cigarette sales in shops. 

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‘New laws will mean only smoked tobacco products containing very low-levels of nicotine can be sold, with a significant reduction in the number of shops who can sell them.’

The new rules will not come into effect immediately to allow retailers to transition away from relying on cigarette sales, said Dr Verrall.

The national target is to have just five per cent or less of the New Zealand population still smoking by 2025. 

As part of the strategy, cigarette prices have increased by 10 per cent every year for the 10 years between 2011 and 2020, but no further tax hikes are now proposed.

The price hike has seen the creation of a black market for cigarettes and there has also been a spike in crime with groups targeting stores selling cigarettes. 

A packet of 20 Marlboro cigarettes in New Zealand now costs around NZ$33 but that strategy alone was failing to have the impact needed to hit the 2025 target.

New Zealand Medical Association said it was thrilled the next generation won’t join the more than 80 per cent of smokers who wish they never started.

‘The Smokefree generation policy will be a defining moment,’ NZMA Chair Dr Alistair Humphrey said on Thursday. 

‘Cigarette smoking kills 14 New Zealanders every day and two out of three smokers will die as a result of smoking.

‘This action plan offers some hope of realising our 2025 Smokefree goal.’

Australia has taken similar steps in curbing cigarette smoking and led the world with its plain packaging and shocking warnings.

But a poll published by the Medical Journal of Australia last month has now backed a total ban on cigarette sales as the next step in the war on smoking. 

Almost 53 per cent surveyed supported phasing out all cigarette sales in retail outlets.

‘Sometimes the public is ahead of the policy,’ tobacco expert Coral Gartner, associate professor at University of Queensland wrote in the MJA.

‘Cigarettes do not meet modern consumer product safety standards.’

She said the NZ proposals were ‘innovative and make Australia look like we are lagging behind.

‘We need to start having the same conversations in Australia now because there are details that need to be considered,’ she added.

‘We don’t want to criminalise people, and we don’t want people with addiction having difficulty quitting and finding an illicit supply. 

‘So we need to start doing research now and consulting on acceptable alternative options.’

Retail tobacco sales are controlled by individual states and territories in Australia.

In 2012, Tasmania considered a similar ban to New Zealand’s, with a proposal to outlaw cigarette sales to anyone born after 2000.

A parliamentary committee found there was no ‘significant legal impediment’ but the plan never became law.