Government's Smokefree Plan Will Accelerate Youth Nicotine Addiction And Boost Tobacco Industry Profits

The Government’s new path to achieve a Smokefree Aotearoa by making more tobacco and nicotine products available will open the floodgates for nicotine addiction of our young people and will have just one beneficiary - the tobacco industry.

Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) strongly condemns these measures and calls on the Government to think about the destructive consequences for youth and the generations to come.

"This disastrous path is an evidence-free experiment with the health of New Zealanders which risks the massive gains we’ve made to help people break free from tobacco addiction, and flies in the face of clear evidence our youth will end up hooked and harmed," HCA Co-Chair Professor Lisa Te Morenga said.

"The Associate Minister of Health needs to let New Zealanders know where she is getting her advice from, because we know it’s not from experts in public health or her own Ministry advisers."

From July 1 the excise tax on heated tobacco products has been halved - the first time a Government has reduced tax on tobacco products in New Zealand.

"This is completely at odds with New Zealand’s global commitments to tobacco control and the weight of evidence about the role of taxation in reducing smoking rates," HCA Smokefree Expert Advisory Group member Professor Chris Bullen said.

"Critically, there is no evidence Heated Tobacco Products help people quit smoking, and there is no conclusive, independent evidence they are less harmful than cigarettes."

HCA is extremely concerned about the Government’s drive to legalise oral nicotine products.

Again, there is little to no evidence these products will help smokers quit and we know the tobacco industry are already marketing oral nicotine products to our youth, in the same way they did with vapes.

HCA’s Smokefree Expert Advisory Group Co-Chair Aporina Chapman (Ngati Awa, Te Whakatohea, Te Whanau a Apanui and Ngati Tuwharetoa) who has worked in tobacco control for over 20 years said she is appalled by the Government’s actions.

"It’s wrong, and I know I’m speaking on behalf of a lot of concerned parents and whānau, it’s totally wrong.

This Government has no concern, no care about the harm these products are doing to our rangatahi. Here in Te Moana a Toi - Bay of Plenty we have a high Māori population, low socio-economic communities and vape shops everywhere so our kids gravitate toward them."

Chapman said the tobacco industry designed their products and advertising to "deliberately target our kids while they’re young and keep them addicted till the day they die".

"What’s it going to take before the Government to realise what they’re doing?"

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