Dear MEL Topic Readers,
New Zealand smoking ban: Health experts criticise new government's
shock reversal
In December 2022 under then-PM Jacinda Arden of the Labor Party, New
Zealand passed a bill that prohibits the sale of cigarettes to anyone born on
or after 1 January 2009 as part of an effort to become smoke-free by 2025. The
bill was also supposed to impose major restrictions on availability and
nicotine content. It aimed to reduce the leading cause of preventable deaths in
the country where around 8% of the adult population smokes. The law has been praised
as one of the most progressive moves to reduce smoking. However, the newly
formed coalition government abruptly announced that it would scrap the smoking
ban to fund tax cuts. Indeed, taxes on cigarettes and tobacco sellers' revenues
would be saved if the smoking ban were to be scrapped. But how could a national
health policy be revised only after one election? In the meantime, as many as
84,000 people quit smoking in 12 months after the smoking ban was approved.
Should a government sacrifice people’s health for money?
Read the article and learn about how democracy works on public health
matters in New Zealand.
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