Health experts said the lifting of New Zealand’s smoking ban was a victory for the tobacco industry amid fears it could prompt Britain to abandon a similar initiative.
Jamie Brown, director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group at University College London (UCL), said New Zealand’s lifting of the world’s leading ban was “extremely disappointing”.
“Beyond the moral imperative to reduce preventable deaths, these measures would likely also save more money in the long run by reducing health care costs and increasing productivity,” he said.
Dr Sarah Jackson, a senior research fellow at the UCL research group, added there was a risk that the changes in New Zealand “could prompt policymakers in England to rethink smoke-free policy and the feasibility of this important step towards it.” A smoke-free country is at risk.” Future”.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced on Monday that the ban imposed by the previous government would be lifted, reflecting concerns from tobacco companies and convenience store activists about the increased risk of illicit trade.
The law would ban the sale of tobacco to people born after 2008 and would reduce the number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes from 6,000 to 600.
The smoke-free law introduced by the government of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is said to have inspired similar steps in the UK. The proposed law for England would make it an offense to sell tobacco products for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
The law was welcomed around the world, but tobacco companies and newsstands in the country opposed the law, saying it could create a Prohibition-style black market.
Health experts have rejected claims that smoking bans would lead to an increase in illicit trade, saying the potential market for tobacco products would shrink if fewer people smoked.
A New Zealand model showed the law would reduce smoking rates to less than five percent by 2025 and could save up to 5,000 lives a year.
Martha Richert and Chris Wilkins, drug research experts at Massey University in New Zealand, highlighted the growing use of social media by tobacco lobbyists.
“The alcohol and tobacco industries fund non-profit organizations to conduct social campaigns or research,” they wrote in an article for The Conversation. “Despite their connections in the industry, they are often portrayed as ‘independent’.
Many of the right-wing parties currently in power in New Zealand, including the ACT Party and the centrist New Zealand First party, opposed the policy, saying it would deprive the government of tax revenue.
Mr Luxon raised concerns about the law ahead of his official swearing-in, saying there were “some practical difficulties”.
“In other words, if you concentrate all your distribution in a few stores and have a tobacco shop in a small town in New Zealand, you can’t tell me it’s going to be a big target for rammings and crime; To do this, a larger black market will be created – a tax-free black market. [cigarettes]”he told RNZ Morning report on Sunday.
“The problem is the program itself: how is it ultimately implemented? A 36-year-old can smoke, but a 35-year-old cannot smoke in a traffic jam? It doesn’t really make much sense.”
It comes after a campaign was launched earlier this year urging people to sign a petition to repeal the law, arguing it would harm corner shops, also known as dairies in New Zealand, which rely on tobacco sales to stay in business. floating.
The Save Our Shops campaign website says the petition was started by a shopkeeper named Bhavesh from Lower Hutt in the Wellington region.
“I am filing this petition because the Smoke Free 2025 laws threaten to destroy not only my business, but thousands of others like mine,” he is quoted as saying on the website. “If the tobacco ban continues, my dairy will have to close along with thousands of other small businesses.” We are heavily dependent on tobacco sales. Without this, my store will not survive.”
The website claims that New Zealand’s more than 6,000 stores make 55 percent of their revenue from selling tobacco products and that “laws like bans have historically done nothing other than encourage people to seek out illegal alternatives.”
It added: “These punitive government actions are a recipe for creating a black market in tobacco.”
The Save Our Stores campaign is supported by tobacco companies Imperial Brands New Zealand and British American Tobacco (BAT) New Zealand. The privacy policy page states that the website is “provided by BAT New Zealand and Imperial Brands Ltd.”
In August, RNZ found more than a dozen Facebook ads linking to the site that said tobacco laws could “give gangs more power” and “lead to more repression.”
BAT declined to comment when contacted IHowever, both companies said in a joint statement to RNZ that they “support the voices of small New Zealand supermarket owners going bust” and that Bhavesh was the “driving voice” of the campaign.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of UK-based Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said repealing the law was “a purely political decision by the New Zealand National Party to gain the few votes it received from the Libertarian Party …it is necessary to form a government.” “.
She added: “The idea that you can finance tax cuts this way is ridiculous. In the UK, Landman Economics’ ASH analysis shows that smoking costs public finances almost twice as much as tobacco tax revenue, so repealing the law would do nothing to reduce taxes.”
Downing Street said last week that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak remains committed to anti-smoking proposals.
“This is an important long-term solution and a step towards a smoke-free generation that remains critical,” the prime minister’s spokeswoman said on Friday.
Source: I News
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