Jacinda Ardern government proposes law that means today’s teenagers will never be allowed to buy cigarettes

New Zealand reports at least 5,000 smoking-related deaths a year

Lawmakers in New Zealand introduced new legislation in parliament on Tuesday that will stop the next generation from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes.

The bills were moved in parliament after the Jacinda Ardern government announced last December that it plans to ban the sale of tobacco to the next generation in a bid to make the country smoke-free by 2025.

New Zealand reports at least 5,000 smoking-related deaths a year, making it the Pacific country’s top cause of preventable death, the government said last year. Four in five smokers start smoking before 18, it added.

Under the new laws, the government will slash the number of retailers authorised to sell tobacco, as well as cut down nicotine levels in all products. It will also make it harder for young people to buy cigarettes.

Introduced in parliament by associate health minister Ayesha Verrall, the new rules imply anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be able to purchase tobacco products, reported NZ Herald.

Introducing the bill, Dr Verall referred to the case of a Judith, a smoker of 30 years with lung disease so bad she could not walk past the letterbox with “blue lips”.

“I could see her scarred lungs under the X-ray... there were barely any of her lungs left after smoking at all,” she said. “She knew she should quit, but she couldn’t.”

The new legislation represents one of the toughest approaches in the world to curbing smoking.

Experts say smoking disproportionately impacts the indigenous Maori people. Dr Verdall said smoking made up “2.5 years of the eight-year gap in life expectancy” between Maoris and Pakeha (the Maori term for white inhabitants of New Zealand).

Though the legislation largely received support, it has also raised some concerns.

National Party health spokesperson Shane Reti said there was already a growing illicit market for tobacco products, and the policy changes were “likely to exacerbate this”.

Pointing to social harms of people unable to access their usual level of nicotine, Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick said that it was necessary to ensure an “evidence-based” and “harm reduction” policy.

Te Pati Maori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, while supporting the bill, raised concerns around the impacts of prohibition.

Dr Verrall, however, contended that there is no prohibition. There would be restrictions on those selling but nicotine could still be purchased elsewhere, including vaping, unlike other drugs, she said.

The law is expected to come into effect in 2023.