New Zealand Proposes Law to Prevent Kids from Smoking…Forever
New Zealand used to be one of those places that I’d love to live.
That, of course, has changed since certain circumstances occurred to our entire globe and the tyranny of some leaders has been put on full display.
Many states in our country have enacted insane laws and some countries have done just the same. But it looks like while New Zealand was enacting some of their insanity, they thought to themselves, “Why stop there?”
Now, New Zealand is banning young people from buying cigarettes…ever.
I don’t mean that they can’t buy cigarettes while they’re kids. I mean that they can’t ever buy a pack of cigarettes.
According to Reuters,
People aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the Pacific country of 5 million, part of proposals unveiled on Thursday that will also curb the number of retailers authorised to sell tobacco and cut nicotine levels in all products.
“We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products to new cohorts of youth,” New Zealand Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said in a statement.
“If nothing changes, it would be decades till Maori smoking rates fall below 5%, and this government is not prepared to leave people behind.”
Currently, 11.6% of all New Zealanders aged over 15 smoke, a proportion that rises to 29% among indigenous Maori adults, according to government figures.
The government will consult with a Maori health task force in the coming months before introducing legislation into parliament in June next year, with the aim of making it law by the end of 2022.
Now, I’m torn on this because I hate smoking. I used to be a smoker myself when I was young, but I’ve not smoked a cigarette in at least 15 years.
I’m torn because I think that smoking is harmful to everyone and that there is no real positive outcome to smoking cigarettes. On the other hand, I’m about freedom and allowing people to do what they want within reason.
Then back to the other hand, smoking isn’t just harmful for those who smoke, but also for those who are around them because secondhand smoke is just as bad.