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Recently, New Zealand's Deputy Minister of Health said at a press conference that under the proposed new regulations, the current legal age of 18 to buy tobacco will gradually increase.
"We want young people to never smoke, so we make it a crime to sell tobacco products to young people"
The New Zealand government expects to bring the proposed bill to parliament in 2022 this year, in preparation for reducing smoking rates to below 5 per cent by 2025.
In recent years, New Zealand's adult smoking rate has been effectively controlled, falling from 18.2% in 2011 to 13.4%
The Deputy Minister said that in addition to legislation, the government will take a series of measures to help smokers quit smoking, including strict restrictions on tobacco advertising, import, manufacture and sale of tobacco products with very low nicotine content.
It's worth noting that the legislation did not include e-cigarettes, which are still very popular in New Zealand. In 2018/19, 21.2% of adults had tried e-cigarettes, up from 18.5% in 2017/18 and 16.2% in 2015/16.