Radical new plans to control tobacco supply

Media Release
For immediate release
Friday 4 September

Radical new plans to control tobacco supply outlined by public health researchers

Major new proposals to alter the supply of tobacco products in New Zealand will be presented at the Public Health Association conference in Dunedin today.

The proposals include introducing a reducing quota for the amount of tobacco made available in New Zealand, and creating a tobacco supply agency to control the amount of tobacco being brought into the country, and then how it is distributed.

Professor Richard Edwards of the University of Otago says it is not good enough that, after 50 years of knowing how harmful smoking was, it continues to kill 5,000 New Zealanders a year.

“By 20 years of age, almost a third of New Zealanders are regular smokers. This has changed little over the last decade. That means a new generation will grow up regarding smoking as an everyday behaviour. It means more taxpayer dollars spent in years to come treating cancers and heart disease due to smoking. We need a radical new approach to the tobacco problem to save both lives and dollars.

“Most tobacco control efforts focus on reducing the demand for tobacco. We explored reactions from a range of audiences to something from the opposite side – that is, changing the nature of the supply of tobacco.”

Professor Edwards says his team looked at the response of public health physicians, policy-makers, and journalists to new ideas, including creating an agency that would buy all the tobacco coming into New Zealand and then control how it is sold.

“At present, there are very few restrictions on how tobacco products are sold and marketed through branding, packaging and point-of-sale displays in New Zealand. These proposals recognise that tobacco is a unique consumer product as it is highly addictive and kills half of its long-term users. It is very far from being a ‘normal’ consumer product. So we are offering a model where neither government or business exploits smokers.”

“Measures which an agency might introduce could include restricting where tobacco products can be sold, ensuring that they are sold in plain packs, and requiring that retailers are licensed to sell tobacco and must stock smoking cessation products as well.”

Professor Edwards, who was recently appointed Professor of Public Health at the University’s Wellington campus, says the proposals had mostly been well received by those to whom they were outlined, though there was a lot of discussion about how easily each might be implemented in practice.

“Yes, they are radical. But judging by the way the policy officials and journalists were so readily engaged by the proposals, the time for these more radical ideas is fast approaching.”

ENDS

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