Enforcement Not New Laws
The lack of enforcement of existing laws has contributed to youth vaping in New Zealand, says the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates
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by Dave Cross
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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates (CAPHRA) is a regional alliance of consumer tobacco harm reduction advocacy organisations. Its mission is to educate, advocate and represent the right of adult alternative nicotine consumers to access and use of products that reduce harm from tobacco use.
CAPHRA says it is committed to advocating for the rights of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region to access and use evidence-based, regulated, and properly marketed harm reduction products as a means of reducing the devastating impact of smoking-related diseases.
“We encourage further research, open dialogue, and collaboration with governments, health organisations, and stakeholders to ensure the best possible outcomes for public health,” it says.
New Zealand is facing a growing problem of youth vaping, with the number of young people taking up the habit increasing dramatically over the past few years. While the country has comprehensive laws in place to regulate the sale and supply of vaping products, the lack of enforcement of these laws is a significant part of the problem says Nancy Loucas, public health consumer advocate and executive coordinator of CAPHRA.
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act 2020 prohibits the sale of vaping products to anyone under the age of 18 years and sets safety standards that need to be met before the products can be sold.
“However, the lack of enforcement of these provisions means that retailers are not being held accountable for selling vaping products to underage youth,” said Ms Loucas.
“If retailers saw other retailers receiving fines of up to $10,000 for selling vaping products to underage youth, you would very quickly see a drop in sales to underage people.
“We call on the Ministry of Health to enforce these provisions and hold retailers accountable by taking them to court and fining them. We also call on the NZ Minister of Health to ask the Director General of health to do this. By doing so, we can send a strong message that selling vaping products to underage youth is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Ms Loucas concluded: “By enforcing existing laws and holding retailers accountable, we can help prevent young people from getting access to vaping products.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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