The government of New Zealand plans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime in one of the world's toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry. People aged 14 in 2027, when the law is scheduled to come into effect, will never be allowed to legally purchase cigarettes in the country, while the level of nicotine in all cigarettes on sale will be reduced, the government announced on Thursday, according to Reuters . "We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products to new cohorts of youth," said New Zealand Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall in a statement. The government will consult with a Maori health task force in the coming months before introducing legislation into parliament in June next year, with the aim of making it law by the end of 2022. That would make New Zealand's retail tobacco industry one of the most restricted in the world.
