Retail restrictions sought

A leading New Zealand-owned and operated vaping company, Alt, is supporting calls for tobacco to be removed from all dairies, according to a story at Voxy.co.nz.

Alt New Zealand’s director, Jonathan Devery reportedly said that such a move would bring considerable health and security benefits.

Devery said that dairy owners needn’t worry about losing income because ongoing hikes in tobacco tax and dwindling smoking rates were already contributing to lower retailer revenue.

At the same time, vaping products, which were much better for society, were proving increasingly profitable for dairy owners.

In recent days, dairy owners have reportedly raised concerns that a New Year rise in tobacco tax had put them at greater risk of theft.

Meanwhile, the Maori public health organization Hapai Te Hauora has called on tobacco’s availability to be limited, noting that smokers trying to give up are more likely to relapse if a cigarette stockist is only a short distance away.

Devery agrees. Although ramping up excise taxes would help toward achieving New Zealand’s Smoke Free 2025 goal, the Government needed to consider the availability of tobacco. Getting cigarettes out of corner dairies would be a great start.

Additionally, Devery said that if the smoke-free goal was to be achieved, vaping products had to be readily available and advertised in a regulated and responsible manner.

Alt was said to be looking forward to the Government this year amending the Smokefree Environments Act 1990, which, among other things, would help distinguish the considerably-safer vaping products from smoking products.