Few years
More and more countries are beginning to strictly control tobacco sales
Put the outer packaging from the "disgusting" picture
to high tobacco taxes and so on
Recently, New Zealand introduced a new rule
Friends born in 2008 and later
I will never be able to legally buy cigarettes for the rest of my life
Later this week, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Adern announced a plan to ban young people from buying cigarettes, aiming to achieve a "rolling smoke-free" for all of New Zealand by 2025.
Image credit BBC News
Deputy Health Minister Ayesha Verrall explained the new legislation specifically: from 2027 onwards, the plan will be implemented, and the age of banning cigarettes will be raised from 18 years old to one year per year – effectively banning the sale of tobacco to people born after 2008.
In addition, the new law will also reduce the number of tobacco shops from 2024 and only allow the sale of smoked tobacco products containing extremely low nicotine content from 2025.
Image credit: Reuters/AFP/AP/GettyImage
Dr Ayesha Verrall, deputy minister of health, also revealed that the new rules will not take effect immediately to enable retailers to transition from relying on cigarette sales to not relying on cigarette sales at all. Once the new regulations are implemented, only 500 stores nationwide will be allowed to sell cigarettes and will need to apply for permits similar to liquor stores to sell cigarettes.
In New Zealand, a pack of 20 Marlboro cigarettes is now priced at about NZ$33, and about 143 yuan, but this price-raising strategy alone cannot have the impact needed to reach the 2025 target.
Officials estimate that smoking kills as many as 5,000 people a year, or 15 percent of all deaths. As a result, the creation of a "smoke-free generation" is part of the Government's plan to reduce smoking prevalence to less than 5 per cent for all segments of New Zealand's population, which the Government aims to achieve by 2025.
As of now, while the smoking rate among the European population in New Zealand has dropped to 10%, the smoking rate for Māori remains at 28% and for the Pacific population at 18%.
A new poll shows that most Australians want a complete ban on all cigarette sales in stores.
Chris Bullen, a professor of public health at the University of Auckland, said the New Zealand government's plan, in particular the move to allow cigarettes to contain extremely low levels of nicotine, is world-leading and will potentially change the global perception of the future of the cigarette industry and human health.
There are also some underconsidered aspects of the permanent ban law – such as health care and anti-tobacco experts suggest that the surge in young people's interest in e-cigarettes in recent years may frustrate the government's goal of "quitting crowd smoking".
It is reported that the latest regulations do not include e-cigarettes, but in recent years, due to the price of cigarettes, many young people have turned to the smoking of e-cigarettes.
Letitia Harding, CEO of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation ARFNZ, said: "The smoke-free generation is good, but people quit cigarettes by smoking e-cigarettes and also think that e-cigarettes are less harmful, which is obviously a very wrong perception. For example, the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are largely unknown and are likely to be very negative. ”
Last month, New Zealand surveyed 19,000 secondary school students across the country showing that more than 25 percent regularly smoke e-cigarettes, while about 15 percent smoke regular cigarettes. The results also show that in the past two years, the number of people who smoke e-cigarettes has increased significantly.
New Zealand's regulation of e-cigarettes is late and relatively loose – up to 60 milligrams of nicotine per millimeter of liquid, compared to the EU's cap of just 1/3:20 milligrams.
This means that if young people try e-cigarettes without having smoked, they will become addicted to nicotine more quickly.
In recent years, big tobacco companies have turned to offering e-cigarettes in different flavors and created designs for a new generation of users – Marlboro cigarette manufacturer PM.N now sells IQOS: British American Tobacco Company BATS.L sells e-cigarettes under the Vuse brand, while Imperial brand IMB.L sells Blu e-cigarettes.
It seems that banning cigarettes can indeed reduce the harm of second-hand smoke to others. But to completely reduce the harm of nicotine to human beings, the list of non-smoking may also add electronic cigarettes, otherwise people just switch from traditional cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, and still can't completely get rid of their dependence on nicotine.