No tobacco may be sold to anyone born after January 1, 2009, even in the future, according to the new law. This means that the age limit for buying cigarettes will continue to rise, and that someone who wants to buy cigarettes in 50 years will have to show identification showing that they are at least 63 years old.
However, the country’s health authorities hope that smoking has disappeared much sooner than that. The goal is for New Zealand to be smoke-free as early as 2025.
Fewer dealers
The new law also states that the number of tobacco retailers must be reduced from 6,000 to 600 and that the amount of nicotine in smoking tobacco must be reduced.
“There is no good reason to allow the sale of a product that kills half the people who use it,” said Ayesha Verrall, New Zealand’s deputy health minister, in parliament.
According to her, healthcare will save billions of dollars by not having to treat cases of illness caused by smoking.
Fears black market
MPs voted along their party lines and the law was approved by 76 votes to 43.
The conservative ACT party opposes the law and claims that many small shops will be forced to close as they can no longer sell cigarettes. According to the party’s vice president Brooke van Velden, the ban will also create a black market.
The law does not cover e-cigarettes, which are already more popular than more traditional smoking in New Zealand.
In November, Statistics New Zealand reported that 8 percent of the country’s adults smoke, a cut in half from 16 percent ten years ago. 8.3 percent of adults smoke e-cigarettes daily, which is an increase from less than 1 percent six years ago.