Does NZ’s tobacco ban make sense?

New Zealand has introduced a very radical plan to ban smoking for the next generation. Legislation, which comes into effect next year, means those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco. The legal smoking age will increase every year, with the plan to create a smoke-free generation of Kiwis.

Chris Bullen is Professor of Public Health at the University of Auckland. Prof Bullen joins us to talk about the measures to help phase out smoking including reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products, cutting down the shops where cigarettes could legally be sold, and increasing funding to addiction services.

At the moment, around 12 percent of New Zealand's adults smoke but the rate is much higher among the indigenous Maori population, where it soars to almost a third. NZ’s goal is to have fewer than 5% of the population smoking daily by 2025.

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