http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/175201/taking-aim-tobacco
Prof Richard Edwards
In the year 2025 any smokers still drawing breath will find their habit on the edge of extinction. At least, that is the plan being promoted by “Aspire 2025″ – a group of experts led by a professor of medicine from the University of Otago. Mark Price reports.
If smokers think they have been alienated and ostracised by law changes in the past, just wait until they see what might be in store for them next.
Aspire 2025 makes no bones about it.
It wants a “tobacco-free” New Zealand by 2025.
And, if it gets its way, the next 14 years will become progressively tougher for the tobacco industry and for smokers who persist.
The members of Aspire 2025 are working on a plan to make New Zealand the first country in the world to end the use of tobacco.
But, will the New Zealand public and its lawmakers be willing to put its plans into action?
Aspire 2025’s leader is Prof Richard Edwards, head of the public health department of the University of Otago’s Wellington School of Medicine.