Mailwatch(ed) Forum

New Zealand to ban cigarettes for future generations/

Anyone born after 2008 will not be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime, under a law expected to be enacted next year.

In theory this is a nice idea. In reality though, fast forward to 2060. 52 year olds will be hanging round outside the newsagents waiting for someone older to come along to get them their fags.

AOB wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 8:29 am New Zealand to ban cigarettes for future generations/

Anyone born after 2008 will not be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime, under a law expected to be enacted next year.

In theory this is a nice idea. In reality though, fast forward to 2060. 52 year olds will be hanging round outside the newsagents waiting for someone older to come along to get them their fags.

Seems to me that "expected" is doing all the work here.

To work, the same would have to happen throughout the world which seems unlikely given the taxes cigarette sales generate. If they were ultimately banned from NZ, they'd need to employ lots more customs staff. It would create a whole new Prohibition style criminal network to be policed. And they don't say if it will be criminalised for people born after 2008, just that sales will be banned to them. Like I say, it's a nice idea, but seems riddled with holes.

Anti smoking initiatives in the Western world have been hugely successful in the past five decades, unlike other anti-drug initiatives. That's despite the massively addictive nature of nicotine and no blanket prohibition on the product. One reason is that you can carry on being a nicotine addict with safer alternatives than smoking tobacco.