New Zealand to Ban Smoking for Next Generation in Bid to Outlaw Habit by 2025

[timelord]

Title pretty much says it all

Link to article in the Guardian below.


New Zealand to ban smoking for next generation in bid to outlaw habit by 2025 - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/09/new-zealand-to-ban-smoking-for-next-generation-in-bid-to-outlaw-habit-by-2025

TLDR:

• Legal age for smoking will be raised by 1 year every year - so no one currently under the age of 14 will ever be able to legally purchase and smoke tobacco in NZ
• Reduced limits of nicotine in tobacco products will also be introduced.
• Vaping is unaffected!?
• Oddly no mention of pipes or cigars but I would imagine that pipe tobacco will be impacted

EDIT. Just to be clear; legislation is being introduced but is not law yet, Anticipated it will come into effect 2023.

I Hope pipe smokers in NZ have got their tobacco cellars organised.

 

[Briar Baron]

Cellars should have been organised 5 years ago, the writing has been on the wall for you guys and us here in Aus for a looong time. I started more than 10 years ago

 

[mikethompson]

Wow!

Either @Ahi Ka 's cellar will be worth a fortune one day, or they will throw him in jail.

 

[Elric]

I wonder if something so draconian has been tried before? Perhaps with a different vice product and a different part of the globe. Hmm. Sounds familiar. Almost like something that could result in the creation of wholesale organized crime. ;-)

 

[--dante--]

I wonder if something so draconian has been tried before? Perhaps with a different vice product and a different part of the globe. Hmm. Sounds familiar. Almost like something that could result in the creation of wholesale organized crime. ;-)

Prohibition (in the US and several other countries in the early 20th century). And no tapering by age, it (alcohol) was just outright made illegal.

 

[briarbuck]

At some point there will be "the straw" and these people will be thrown out of power.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Sheesh, not sure how to feel about this.

I think it'll be increasingly important to help people (the general public) understand that tobacco does NOT equal cigarettes.

In the same way, we have come to understand that a reasonable amount of red wine can provide antioxidants that are healthy and that is very different than going out on a Friday and hammer 12 gin-based cocktails; we need to somehow fund some unbiased research in to the different forms of tobacco.

 

[sallow]

Who enforces this? The grocery store and gas station?

 

[mortonbriar]

At some point there will be "the straw" and these people will be thrown out of power.

Its hard to give context, but honestly, this smokefree campaign here in NZ started in the 80's and the 2025 smokefree deadline has been the goal publicly for so many years that it's not really 'the last straw' in any sense.
I have a cellar that will need padding out down the track somewhat, but with a little home grown most years and I will have something to puff on for as long as I can draw breathe.

Honestly, the latest restrictions which came 18 months ago, while initially stressful and infringing (being able to use the mail service to order tobacco) have changed my hobby for the better. I no longer need to jump on 20% off sales, I have no budget dedicated to tobacco now. Taking away the purchasing consumption and just leaving the leaf consumption (see what I did there?) has changed my hobby for the better.

I have always liked waiting to eat fruit/vege in season as opposed to getting an avocado from the far end of the earth, I like the idea that as my cellar thins out I will smoke more or less according to whether I had a big crop that year and topped up the cellar, or had a lean year, and so smoke a little less from the cellar to compensate.

This all probably sounds like my rights are being restricted and I am losing my freedoms, or the 69th amendment or whatever and sure, that could be the perspective of some. I bet the newcomers to the hobby would be frustrated, not having had the years to put something away.

 

[mso489]

I guess someone had to run the experiment, so here it is. Will the public comply? And if so, what will the health data be? Will the life expectancy increase? Will respiratory diseases decline? Will an active black market grow? It's unusual that the fourteen year olds who will be prohibited from buying cigarettes be willing to be prohibited when they are forty. Since I don't have a vote on how New Zealand conducts its public health programs, all I can do is wait and see. One of the target populations is the indigenous community; will they see this as concern for their health, or as an oppression? Stand by.

 

[briarbuck]

I guess someone had to run the experiment, so here it is. Will the public comply? And if so, what will the health data be? Will the life expectancy increase? Will respiratory diseases decline? Will an active black market grow? It's unusual that the fourteen year olds who will be prohibited from buying cigarettes be willing to be prohibited when they are forty. Since I don't have a vote on how New Zealand conducts its public health programs, all I can do is wait and see. One of the target populations is the indigenous community; will they see this as concern for their health, or as an oppression? Stand by.

The only way these "experiments" can work is if the population is small and contained. It may work on an Island or College Campus. Good luck trying to enforce this on the US. lol

 

[LOREN]

If you already own the tobacco in, say, 2025 will you be able to smoke it legally? What if you inherit tobacco from your grandfather in 2025 will you be even able to own it legally? Will you be able to smoke it legally? I guess they could eventually go after trading, gifting and inheriting tobacco.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Its hard to give context, but honestly, this smokefree campaign here in NZ started in the 80's and the 2025 smokefree deadline has been the goal publicly for so many years that it's not really 'the last straw' in any sense.
I have a cellar that will need padding out down the track somewhat, but with a little home grown most years and I will have something to puff on for as long as I can draw breathe.

Honestly, the latest restrictions which came 18 months ago, while initially stressful and infringing (being able to use the mail service to order tobacco) have changed my hobby for the better. I no longer need to jump on 20% off sales, I have no budget dedicated to tobacco now. Taking away the purchasing consumption and just leaving the leaf consumption (see what I did there?) has changed my hobby for the better.

I have always liked waiting to eat fruit/vege in season as opposed to getting an avocado from the far end of the earth, I like the idea that as my cellar thins out I will smoke more or less according to whether I had a big crop that year and topped up the cellar, or had a lean year, and so smoke a little less from the cellar to compensate.

This all probably sounds like my rights are being restricted and I am losing my freedoms, or the 69th amendment or whatever and sure, that could be the perspective of some. I bet the newcomers to the hobby would be frustrated, not having had the years to put something away.

Fight the Power!!!

 

[warren]

Almost like something that could result in the creation of wholesale organized crime. ;-)

Taxes have, in some locales, generated millions for some Reservations. One shouldn't try and equate the alcohol prohibition with the banning of smoking. Booze was much loved by many. Smoking? Not so much in the US and other 1st world countries. But, we'll see. Well, you younger guys will.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I wonder if something so draconian has been tried before? Perhaps with a different vice product and a different part of the globe. Hmm. Sounds familiar. Almost like something that could result in the creation of wholesale organized crime. ;-)

In reading threads for years now, and reading guys saying that the idea of just blending tobaccos blows their minds, I have to wonder whether mixing a few drinks to make a cocktail back during prohibition would have just been too complicated for some of these guys. And, in the growing threads, many just seem to think of growing things as an alien thing, not in their universe of understanding.

Hypothetical here... I could see an underground of people moving whole leaf, maybe some twists. But, I think that blending ribbons or flakes and putting them into bags or packages for distribution would get real tricky for an underground market. I know that (hypothetically) I would feel more comfortable mailing whole leaf, as opposed to mailing a box of baggies. And, with how some guys seem to think blending is out of their skill set, ha ha, most would probably just have to go without.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Just to ease everyone’s stress, while I don’t look it, I am older than 14 so this doesn’t affect me.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I'd rather see the ban than raised taxes, which is all but admitting you're trying to enslave the population rather than help them.

 

[telescopes]

Does this apply to pot?

 

[telescopes]

From our Wikipedia friends, "The use of cannabis in New Zealand is regulated by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, which makes unauthorised possession of any amount of cannabis a crime. Cannabis is the fourth-most widely used recreational drug in New Zealand, after caffeine, alcohol and tobacco, and the most widely used illicit drug."

It is interesting that caffeine is considered a recreational drug, wtf? Pot is illegal . In reality, it means pot use is fairly high amongst the Kiwi

 

[mortonbriar]

From our Wikipedia friends, "The use of cannabis in New Zealand is regulated by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, which makes unauthorised possession of any amount of cannabis a crime. Cannabis is the fourth-most widely used recreational drug in New Zealand, after caffeine, alcohol and tobacco, and the most widely used illicit drug."

It is interesting that caffeine is considered a recreational drug, wtf? Pot is illegal . In reality, it means pot use is fairly high amongst the Kiwi

Oh yes, everything grows very well here, and that other stuff is pretty close to legal, decriminalized to a certain extent. But back to the brown leaf which is allowed to be talked about on this forum!