The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009 – and from now on, the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up
New Zealand is not the only nation pushing to ban smoking for the next generations. In June, a report commissioned by the UK government recommended raising the legal smoking age each year to phase out tobacco use among young people.
New Zealand has passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking for the next generation by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes.
The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009 – and from now on, the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up.
In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old. But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. They have a stated goal of making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.
There is no good reason to allow a product to be sold that kills half the people that use it,” Associate Minister of Health Dr. Ayesha Verrall told lawmakers in Parliament. “And I can tell you that we will end this in the future, as we pass this legislation”.
New Zealand is not the only nation pushing to ban smoking for the next generations. In June, a report commissioned by the UK government recommended raising the legal smoking age each year to phase out tobacco use among young people.
Denmark also unveiled similar plans earlier this year, but the government said such a move would require changes to the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive. A citizens’ initiative later petitioned the European Commission to ban the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to EU citizens born after 2010.
According to the latest data from Eurostat, 18.4 per cent of people aged 15 and over in the EU smoke every day. But the figure ranges from 6.4 per cent in Sweden to 23.6 per cent in Greece and 28.7 per cent in Bulgaria.