New Zealand's Plan to End Smoking
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New Zealand's government believes it has come up with a unique plan to end tobacco smoking: a lifetime ban for those aged 14 or younger.
Under a new law the government announced Thursday and plans to pass next year, the minimum age to buy cigarettes would keep rising year after year.
Because the current minimum age to buy cigarettes in New Zealand is 18, the lifetime smoking ban for youth wouldn't have an impact for a few years. but in theory, 65 years after the law takes effect, shoppers could only buy cigarettes if they could prove they were at least 80 years old.
In practice, officials hope smoking will fade away decades before then. Indeed, the plan sets a goal of having fewer than 5% of New Zealanders smoking by 2025.
Other parts of the plan include allowing only the sale of tobacco products with very low nicotine levels and slashing the number of stores that can sell them. The changes would be brought in overtime to help retailers adjust.
Vocabulary:
Fade away - to go away slowly
Slashing - reducing
youth - young people
Unique - one of a kind
