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New Zealand takes another step in its smokefree journey with its latest vaping proposals, but how will New Zealand's last minute change to these vaping restrictions impact people looking to quit smoking in the country, and will these new measures have a real-world impact on youth vaping? Joining us is Nancy Loucas who will guide us through New Zealand's latest efforts to combat youth vaping.

Chapters:

0:00 - Coming up on today's programme
1:02 - New Zealand likely to ban disposable vapes
2:38 - Activists blindsided by last minute changes
3:39 - Youth vaping prompts latest restrictions
4:39 - New penalties for vape shops
5:16 - Parliamentary debate stirs up backlash

Transcription:

00:00:05 --> 00:01:00


Joanna Junak: Hello and welcome. I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.tv. It currently looks like New Zealand is on course to achieve its smoke-free 2025 goal. What stage is the government's policy at in achieving this ambitious plan? Let's find out. Joining us today to provide an update on the latest developments in New Zealand's smoke-free journey is Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of the Coalition of Asia-Pacific Harm Reduction Advocates. Hello, Nancy. Can you tell us what's been happening recently in New Zealand?



00:01:00 --> 00:03:38


Nancy Loucas: It's been an interesting winter on many levels. I first want to cover what is going on here in New Zealand with regards to the amendment that is being proposed to the smoke free environments act. First of all, there are four key issues that they want to debate and have discussed in health committee, and these are look at my notes. They want to fully ban disposable vapes, not just single use vapes, but closed pod tanks. So pre-filled pods, pre-filled tanks. They're also implementing the child safety mechanism, the removable battery mechanism. This is what they want to do in terms of disposable vapes. The next thing that they're trying to do is to increase the penalties for vape retailers that sell to young people. This is contentious as well, but let me go through all of them and then explain it. The third, they want to implement retail restrictions on display in specialist vape retailers, similar to the cigarettes that are behind the counter in general retailers. And lastly, they want to implement restrictions about vape shops opening near early childhood centers. Now, starting from the first one, disposable vapes are banned in New Zealand as of the 1st of October. We were under the impression and we were told that disposable vapes included single-use devices and devices that did not have removable batteries. They've expanded the definition of that to include pre-filled pods and pre-filled tanks. obviously everyone is up in arms, especially the consumers that use them. Because here in New Zealand, 75% of adult people who smoke made the transition using closed system vapes. So ultimately what the government here is doing is they are conflating disposable vapes with closed system vapes. The other stat that they're not choosing to acknowledge is that 55% of adults who are remaining smoke-free use these devices. So by taking these off the market, what they're conceivably trying to do or going to do is they're going to force people back to smoking or to the black market.



00:03:39 --> 00:03:45


Joanna Junak: And what about proposed changes regarding penalties for vape retailers who sell to young people?



00:03:46 --> 00:04:37


Nancy Loucas: They refuse to acknowledge that the majority of young people in this country obtain vape products via social supply, that's friends and family. They are not being sold in specialist vape retailers. Specialist vape retailers in this country are being penalized for something that they did not do. The majority of supply to young people in this country is via social networks, social supply, friends, family, gray markets. It's not the specials vape retailers. And they're being penalized as well because they're also going to get display restrictions, same as what is done for smoked or combusted tobacco in all retailers. So they're kind of changing the narrative from harm reduction to, okay, this is harmful now and treating it the same.



00:04:40 --> 00:04:46


Joanna Junak: What are the existing restrictions on opening vape retailers near early childhood centers?



00:04:47 --> 00:05:15


Nancy Loucas: There is already in the regulations restrictions that vape shops cannot be opened within 300 meters of a school, a quarter or an early childhood center. The problem I think that they're trying to address here is that prior to 2023, vape shops could open closer to those locations, and those that had opened were grandfathered in and were not required to move their shop.



00:05:17 --> 00:05:24


Joanna Junak: And what concerns were raised during the first parliamentary debate regarding the proposed amendments to this health policy?



00:05:25 --> 00:07:49


Nancy Loucas: In Parliament, the first debate was filled with people spouting prohibitionist agendas, propaganda. Some of it was so... Some of the propaganda that was spouted in Parliament was so obviously from the United States that a lot of us that were watching it were just we were cursing at the television and at the screen. Things like we have flavor restrict name restrictions here in New Zealand, and there's ministers out there spouting stuff about unicorn brains and milk and cotton candy and all the things that are not available in New Zealand. So they're taking this information from those overseas actors and trying to say that we have it here when we don't. What is scary about that is that these people that are determining health policy and determining amendments and regulation to health policy don't even have a clue what is included already in health policy. So it's similar to Australia with a ban on a ban. I don't know how it's going to turn out. I suspect that they're going to ramrod this through because they want to get it done. The submission and public consultation has been truncated to two weeks from the normal six months. And the minister has already said that she wants the report back on her desk and presented into Parliament on the 31st of October. Submissions opened on the 15th of September and closed on the 27th of September. So not much time left. for people to make submissions and comment on what they're suggesting they want to do. That's where we're at. It seems that the wave has finally reached us all the way over here at the edge of the world. We sit, we watch, we wait, we provide information and we hope that somehow sanity prevails. We don't want to wind up like Australia. We don't want to wind up with a black market. I mean, the whole point of this 6.8% of people are still currently smoking in New Zealand. The goal is 5% by 2025. We're so close. And now what are we doing? So I don't have any answers for you, but that's the status report and that's what's going on in New Zealand.



00:07:50 --> 00:08:05


Joanna Junak: Thank you, Nancy. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. You can also find transcriptions of each episode on the GFN TV website. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.