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Revised April 2010.
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Six principles to achieve a tobacco-sales-free
New
Zealand by
2020
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Maori have a special interest
in this issue, but all New Zealanders will benefit
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Health inequalities will be lessened by ending
tobacco sales.
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Combustible tobacco products: not fit for
sale.
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Cigarettes are lethal, and cannot be made safer.
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Reduction of supply is
necessary and feasible
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Reducing the number of cigarettes sold is the surest
way to reduce cigarette deaths.
Ending commercial sales requires a cap on sales and a
sinking lid on sales quotas to zero by 2020.
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Tax tobacco content
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Tax on tobacco raises price and reduces demand
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Tax nicotine content to reduce
addictive potential
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Cigarettes are highly addictive, reducible with a
nicotine tax, making quitting easier, and reducing demand.
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Permit nicotine substitutes
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Cigarette smoking is a habit and a sensory
experience. Permitting sale of nicotine substitutes which simulate smoking,
permits smokers not yet ready to abstain from nicotine to continue to
enjoy their nicotine habit while avoiding the health harms of inhaling smoke.
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The cigarette
smoking mortality epidemic
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Figure 1. Annual cigarette deaths, New
Zealand, 1955-2000
Source: Peto et al. Mortality
from smoking in developed countries 1950-2000. www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk
The
necessary legislation to control this epidemic can be passed in one
amendment bill.
Suggested
Target dates
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Consultation and recruitment of support for the concept among
health professionals
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2010
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Adoption of the Smokefree Environments Amendment Bill as a private
members’ bill:
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2010
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Enactment of the bill
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2012
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Implementation of the SFE Amendment Bill ending the sale of
cigarettes and smoking tobacco
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2012 to 2020
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Bills
provoke public debate. Laws shape society, and educate the public along the
way.
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Historically,
the purpose of public health law in New Zealand is to control epidemics. The Smokefree Environments Act 1990 needs reshaping to end
the tobacco mortality epidemic.
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Laws
can be used to reduce health harm from addictions – eg methadone instead of heroin.
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The tobacco deaths epidemic is a
problem too big for the health system alone to fix.
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