Short-term dollars at what cost? Repealing New Zealand's Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 plan would sacrifice lives and longer-term economic gain

More than 10 years ago, Māori politicians in Aotearoa/New Zealand started a movement to end the tobacco epidemic in the country. In December 2022, the then Labour Government finally introduced a comprehensive, evidence-based plan to achieve that vision. Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 prioritised Māori leadership and support to help people who currently smoke to quit. It also contained three game-changing components: reducing nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels, reducing retail outlets that sell tobacco by more than 90% and a smoke-free generation policy that meant it would never be legal to sell combustible tobacco products to people born after 2008...