Born After 2004? New Zealand May Never Let You Smoke

[Demovictory9]

Born After 2004? New Zealand May Never Let You Smoke
Nation considering various proposals as it aims to be smoke-free by 2025

New Zealand has proposed several plans as part of a goal to be smoke-free by 2025, including a permanent ban on sales of any tobacco products to anyone born after 2004, reports the Guardian. Cigarettes are already heavily taxed in the country. But "we need a new approach," Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said Thursday in revealing the proposals, noting that "about 4,500 New Zealanders die every year from tobacco." Verrall said the "most extreme" proposal toward a smoke-free generation is one that would ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2004 beginning in 2022. That ban would be permanent—meaning a person born after 2004 couldn’t buy tobacco products even after reaching adulthood.


Verrall also said the government—which is seeking input from the public—could instead choose to raise the legal age for purchasing and using tobacco to 20 or 25, "where taking up smoking is much less likely," per Stuff. Other proposed rules would see limits on the amount of nicotine allowed in products, a mandatory minimum price, and a ban on cigarette filters. The hope is this will encourage people to abandon the habit, which accounts for one in four cancer deaths in New Zealand. But even smokers who support some of the proposals tell Stuff that the goal of a smoke-free nation by 2025 is unrealistic. Some say it will only expand the black market for tobacco. Others worry about the effect on small retailers. As for the proposed ban on filters, "it's not going to make any difference," says one smoker. "Does the needle bother the heroine junky?"

https://www.newser.com/story/305018/born-after-2004-new-zealand-may-never-let-you-smoke.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_world_login

[USALiberal]

1. Great idea! Nt

[jimfields33]

2. Ban alcohol to while your at it

Yes it was tried and failed. Try again. Alcohol kills people every year.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. Ban Big Macs, KFC, and Cokes.

Oh no, Trump might live to see 90 if you did that.

[Haggard Celine]

5. Just go ahead and ban sugar.

Think of all the people who die of obesity and diabetes every year. Sugar is extremely addictive, too.

[Clash City Rocker]

6. Alcohol is too easy to make

People have made booze out of everything with sugar or starch in it. People have made alcohol from potatoes, rice, watermelons, carrots, sunflowers, apples, honey, beets, coconuts, cacti, milk, maple sap, eucalyptus sap, etc. In prison they make alcohol out of garbage. If people want booze, they will find it.

Tobacco is a little different. It’s not so easy to grow the ingredients in your backyard. And it’s fairly obvious when someone has been smoking it, they tend to smell, and so does the place where they smoked it. Also, it doesn’t get you high like other drugs, it just makes you feel like crap when you stop. The key is to stop new people from smoking, and it doesn’t seem like something people will seek out illegally unless either they’re already addicted, or they see other people smoking and think it’s cool. If there’s one drug you might stop people from using, it’s tobacco.

[jimfields33]

7. I'm not against it but if were going full authoritarian might as well get rid

Of all “sins”

[madville]

4. Best way to make people want something?

Simply ban it, then everyone will want to do it.