Auckland:The Government of New Zealand has not stopped only campaigning against smoking. This time the government of the country has adopted a special law to make the country completely smoke-free by 2025. The law has set a fixed time and blocked the way for anyone born at that time or after that time to smoke. Such a law has been passed in New Zealand for the first time in the world.
It has been given that tobacco cannot be sold to anyone born on and after January 1, 2009. People of that age will not be able to smoke for any reason. The passage of the act is expected to make the country completely smoke-free by 2025. The act also seeks to reduce the number of shops legally allowed to sell cigarettes by one-tenth. In place of the 6,000 cigarette-selling shops now across the country, that number will now be reduced to 60.
The act will come into effect from 2013. The country’s Health Minister Ayesha Veral, while passing the act, said that “due to the law, thousands of people will now be able to live in a healthy condition.” It is to be noted that the rate of smoking in New Zealand has already come down. Only 8 percent of adults in the country smoke daily. It was 9.4 percent a year ago.
