Screw that country. Seriously.

New Zealand will ban the sale of tobacco to its next generation, in a bid to eventually phase out smoking.

Anyone born after 2008 will not be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime, under a law expected to be enacted next year.

"We want to make sure young people never start smoking," Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verall said.

The move is part of a sweeping crackdown on smoking announced by New Zealand's health ministry on Thursday.

Doctors and other health experts in the country have welcomed the "world-leading" reforms, which will reduce access to tobacco and restrict nicotine levels in cigarettes.

"It will help people quit or switch to less harmful products, and make it much less likely that young people get addicted to nicotine," said Prof Janet Hook from the University of Otago.

The crackdown has been met with mixed reactions.

"I reckon it's a good move, really," one man told Reuters news agency. "Because right now there's a lot of young kids walking around with smokes in their mouth. Public are asking how they're getting these smokes.

"And it's also good for myself too because I can save more money."

However, others have warned that the move may create a black market for tobacco - something the health ministry's official impact statement does acknowledge, noting "customs will need more resource to enforce border control".

"This is all 100% theory and 0% substance," Sunny Kaushal, chairman of the Dairy and Business Owners Group, a lobby group for local convenience stores, told New Zealand's Stuff news site. "There's going to be a crime wave. Gangs and criminals will fill the gap".

New Zealand is determined to achieve a national goal of reducing its national smoking rate to 5% by 2025, with the aim of eventually eliminating it altogether.

At the moment, 13% of New Zealand's adults smoke, with the rate much higher among the indigenous Maori population, where it soars to almost a third. Maori also suffer a higher rate of disease and death.

New Zealand's health ministry says smoking causes one in four cancers and remains the leading cause of preventable death for its five million strong population. The industry has been the target of legislators for more than a decade now.

As part of the crackdown announced on Thursday, the government also introduced major tobacco controls, including significantly restricting where cigarettes can be sold to remove them from supermarkets and corner stores.

The number of shops authorised to sell cigarettes will be drastically reduced to under 500 from about 8,000 now, officials say.

In recent years, vaping - smoking e-cigarettes which produce a vapour that also delivers nicotine - has become far more popular among younger generations than cigarettes.

New Zealand health authorities warn however, that vaping is not harmless. Researchers have found hazardous, cancer-causing agents in e-cigarette liquids as well.

But in 2017 the country adopted vaping as a pathway to help smokers quit tobacco.

https://news.yahoo.com/zealand...tions-044155063.html

If they enforce the law like Singapore it might work. For years chewing gum was not allowed and there were penalties for failure to flush the commode. It is an odd country.

Yeah right

These morons just made the issue 1,000x worse by making tobacco a forbidden and tantalizing fruit.

What does your typical teen do when you forbid them from something? Meekly accept it or double down?

They will create MORE smokers now, I predict and a huge thriving black market.

Not a smoker, can tobacco products be ordered online?
Could start a market of 'roll your own' users?

It's coming to a government near you...the public health genie is out of the bottle and progressives everywhere are fully empowered.

First they come for your guns
Then they come for your knives

Then they come for your smokes...


Alcohol has gotta be next.

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
It's coming to a government near you...the public health genie is out of the bottle and progressives everywhere are fully empowered.

I would argue it’s been out of bottle for decades if not a century here in the US. The government restricts access to any number of substances, including plants, and many here applaud them for it in the name of public health and safety. Now name one plant that has killed more people than tobacco…….

Ha ha… Socialism

So, they'll all have popcorn lung instead of lung cancer.

They seem determined to ban all the dangerous or potentially lethal things.

Are they also going to ban booze? What about the devils lettuce?

I am not at all surprised to see New Zealand’s government do this. The nanny state always knows what’s best.

Life is soo much easier when you don't have to make your own choices.
I'm looking forward to when we get daily rations of govt. approved health foods.
I'll know its whats best for me and I won't even have to think about it.

FYI … New Zealand produces all of the worlds opium poppies for pharmaceutical use.

Think about that. (Conveniently very close to China.)


How different are they truly re: Afghanistan whom simply sells it on the black market with the help of state sponsored TLA‘s?

While there may be no food in Afghanistan, there’s certainly tobacco if you wish. Welcome to the black market New Zealand.

quote:

I'm looking forward to when we get daily rations of govt. approved health foods.

as in incarceration.......

quote:

Originally posted by bdylan:
It's coming to a government near you...the public health genie is out of the bottle and progressives everywhere are fully empowered.

I don't think so here, our politicians and government both make too much money off it from lobbyists and taxes.

Look at the two biggest social/moral issue flip flops they've had in recent years, sports gambling and weed. State governments aren't changing their views because they feel society has changed it's feeling on them, but because they realized they could make a lot of money off it.

They love power and control, but not as much as money. Because money not only buys mansions but more power and control.

Twat government looking to do twat things to a “beat me harder mommy” population. Not exactly shocking.

New Zealand is modeling their country after the 1960 movie The Time Machine where they blow a horn and everyone walks into the cave to get eaten by the Morlocks.
THAT is where they are going.... just a fact.

Decades ago, I would have been certain that the Australians and New Zealanders would have been the last to go this way.

Not at all sure why I thought that.

quote:

name one plant that has killed more people than tobacco…….

Sugarcane.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Are they also going to ban booze?

We tried this once . . . with disastrous results. This type of nanny state BS always results an opposite and much more negative outcome.

I don't see the issue with outlawing a carcinogen that has no beneficial use whatsoever.

But maybe that's just the bouts of cancer talking. I know very few tobacco users who are glad that they took it up and got addicted.