World News for Students of English

15-12-2021 15:00

New Zealand’s plans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their life is one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry.

Starting in 2027, anyone up to 14 years old won’t be allowed to legally buy cigarettes in the country.

The government also introduced new controls over tobacco, including significantly limiting where cigarettes can be sold and removing them from supermarkets and corner stores. At the moment, 13% of New Zealand’s adults smoke, with the rate much higher among the indigenous Maori population, where it is almost a third of adults.

Doctors and other health experts in the country welcomed the world-leading changes that will limit access to tobacco and lower nicotine levels in cigarettes.

Some experts believe that the law will help people to quit smoking or to switch to less harmful products, and make it much less likely that young people get addicted to nicotine. However, others have warned that the changes may create illegal trading for tobacco, and the government will need more resources to enforce border control.

Difficult words: crackdown (a strong official action to deal with bad or illegal behavior in a more severe way), nicotine (a poisonous addictive chemical that is found in tobacco), enforce border control (to know what is coming and going to and from your country).

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