The government of New Zealand said it plans to ban anyone born after 2008 from ever legally buying cigarettes. Some 11.6 percent of all New Zealanders over 15 smoke. But 29 percent of Maori adults smoke. “If nothing changes, it would be decades till Maori smoking rates fall below 5 percent, and this government is not prepared to leave people behind,” said Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall. The proposed law would also reduce the number of stores that can sell tobacco products and cut the amount of nicotine tobacco can contain.
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