New Kiwi Bill to Crack Down on Youth Vaping
The coalition Government in New Zealand has introduced legislation “to tackle youth vaping”, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today
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by Dave Cross
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The coalition Government in New Zealand has introduced legislation “to tackle youth vaping”, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. The Bill includes four main changes to prevent youth vaping: a complete ban on disposable vapes, significant increases in fines for sales to under-18s, visibility restrictions on retailers - outside specialist vape retailers and from inside stores such as dairies and petrol stations - and proximity restrictions relating to early childhood education centres.
Costello said: “The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill (No 2) is aimed at preventing youth vaping. While vaping has contributed to a significant fall in our smoking rates, the rise in youth vaping remains a real concern for parents, teachers, and health professionals.
“Too many young people use disposable vapes – they’re cheap and easy to access, that’s why single use vape products will be banned outright. We are also moving to significantly increase the penalties for retailers who illegally sell vapes, cigarettes and other regulated products to young people.”
The maximum fine for selling vapes or other regulated products to under-18s will increase from approx. £4,500 to approx.. £47,000. The penalty for infringement offences will rise from £234 to £468 for individuals and to just under £1,000 for businesses.
The Bill includes early childhood education centres in proximity restrictions for new specialist vape retailers. For those applying to set up a new specialist vape retail store, the retail location must be at least 100 metres from early childhood centres. This builds on the existing requirement to be at least 300 metres from a marae or school.
Costello continued: “Importantly, the tougher penalties will be supported by far greater enforcement capability. For the last few years, we haven’t had the level of enforcement required, but 16 more dedicated smokefree enforcement officers will be in place by December.
“The Government is committed to achieving Smokefree 2025 and to stopping young people from vaping and this Bill will ensure we are able to protect our young people from vaping whilst continuing to support adult smokers to quit by maintaining access to vapes as a cessation tool.
“I hope that public submissions through the select committee process ensure that we have a practical regime that achieves both objectives. We want to get rid of the vapes that are most popular among young people and ensure that effective cessation products remain available for people to quit smoking and not return to smoking.”
The coalition states that the next steps in its Smokefree programme will be the updating and strengthening the regulation of tobacco products, updating its Smokefree action plan, and placing further restrictions on vape products.
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Harm Reduction Advocates commented: “Interesting to note that NZ Labour doesn't have a clue of the regulations that THEY had already pushed through, inc. flavour names and proximity to schools/kura that is already in effect. Where was Ayesha Verrall during the debate, as the original bill, with the changes, was her creation and yet her fellow party members made it sound like nothing was done.”
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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