Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s legacy smoking policy is in tatters, with the country’s parliament this week formally repealing the generational smoking ban.
Previously planned to take effect from July, New Zealand’s proposed smoking ban would have given it the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world by banning sales of tobacco to people born after January 1st 2009 and reducing the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90%.
New Zealand’s planned ban was the inspiration for Rishi Sunak’s proposed generational smoking ban, and the U-turn means the UK is the only country in the world now looking to pursue a generational prohibition policy on tobacco.
The nation’s Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said the coalition government was still committed to reducing smoking but would take an alternative approach to discourage the habit and reduce the harm it causes.
New Zealand joins a growing list of countries that have shelved similar policies, including South Africa, Bhutan, Malaysia, Russia and Denmark.
Speaking in a debate in New Zealand’s parliament, Sam Uffindell MP from the National Party said: “This is a much better approach than the prohibition-style approach that the Opposition has put forward and planned by the previous Government.
“We’re going to be a lot less punitive than they were. We’re going to provide people with more choice to help them quit, and we are supporting a package of initiatives to ensure we reach the smokefree goal 2025.”
Cameron Luxton MP (ACT Party) said: “The idea that prohibition of nicotine, which is essentially what this is, was going to have any good result; the fact that it was a gradual lowering of the nicotine in cigarettes to the point where it basically was driving people into the arms of the worst to get their fix.”
This is the latest setback in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to prohibit the sale of tobacco and disposable vapes in the UK.
The Express reported recently on how the illicit market has exploded in Australia after its government introduced a ban on the sale of disposable vapes, with Theo Foukkare, CEO of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, warning Mr Sunak: “Learn from the Australian Government’s mistakes.
“Prohibition has never worked and is pushing Australians right into the arms of the black market.”
