Sadly, after working in a public hospital I don't just have one story of a life destroyed by tobacco to share. I saw the consequences of smoking every day: heart attacks, strokes, emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, blindness, amputations, and premature birth. It's a tragedy that these impacts fall most heavily on Māori and Pacific communities. Smoking accounts for 2.5 years of the eight-year difference in life expectancy between Māori and non-Māori. It does not need to be this way.