New Zealand: No Burning Desire for Smokefree Goal

Source from:  Stuff 11/28/2014

It was hailed as a world-leading move in the fight against tobacco - but only three years later, plans for New Zealand to be smokefree by 2025 would appear to be a pipedream.

A study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today estimates that, even with steep tobacco tax rises and the introduction of plain packaging, tens of thousands of Kiwis will still be smoking by 2025.

One of the study authors, Otago University professor Tony Blakely, said the Government needed to start thinking about more "radical solutions" if it was committed to the goal.

Those included requiring smokers to have a tobacco licence, forcing tobacco firms to phase out nicotine, restricting tobacco sales to pharmacies, or subsidising less harmful alternatives such as e-cigarettes.