Taxing the Habit

Over the next four years, smokers in New Zealand will have to pay 40 per cent more for a packet of cigarettes after the government announced tobacco tax hikes in this year’s budget. Prices here are already among the highest in the world, and by 2016 they will top $20 a pack on average. Officials hope higher taxes and new restrictions will bring this country of 4.4 million closer to a recent pledge to snuff out the habit entirely by 2025. New Zealand’s Cancer Society reacted to the announcement by sending out a press release titled “Thumbs Up!”