Wednesday 19 October 2016

No Enforcement Makes Mockery of Current Laws

The lack of enforcement of current laws around the sale of nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids has led to warnings that unless the Government move quickly to legalise them, it risks a retailer free-for-all says the New Zealand Vaping Alliance.

“It is common knowledge that anyone selling nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids at retail is currently breaking the law, but the practice is so widespread the Ministry of Health has essentially turned a blind eye to it,” says New Zealand Vaping President QJ Satchell.

The Ministry of Health acknowledges in its consultation that ‘due to the lack of clarity on the legal position of e-cigarettes… it has been unable to carry out enforcement actions against retailers’.

“As a result, you have a situation where responsible retailers who want to sell nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids but who don’t want to break the law, frustratingly turn away customers who then walk to another shop which quite happily sells them these products,” said Mr Satchell.

“With no enforcement or prosecutions taking place, retailers are growing increasingly unhappy the Government is allowing a situation to get worse where law-abiding retailers are placed at a commercial disadvantage.”

“All we want is the Government to either make a quick change in the legal status of these products, or actually enforce the existing legislation that states that the sale and supply of nicotine e-cigarettes is prohibited” said Mr Satchell.

“The New Zealand Vaping Alliance is calling on the Government to act quickly to legalise the sale of nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids or face the very real prospect that every retailer selling these products is breaking the law,” Mr Satchell said.

[ENDS]

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