If NZ decides to treat e-cig products the same as tobacco products – who really gains from lobbying against “personal use” regarding nicotine?
“British American Tobacco New Zealand (BATNZ) welcomes the announcement made by the Minister of Customs today to try to tackle the serious issue of black market tobacco in New Zealand but encourages the Minister to go further. We are disappointed that the Minister has not taken this opportunity to remove the personal use allowance altogether and adopt a licensing policy similar to that in Australia with far tougher penalties for illegal growing and sales,” said Saul Derber, Head of Legal and External Affairs, BAT New Zealand.
“It is quite interesting that when you read the BATNZ press release, it seems innocuous enough” said Steve Dohmen, Vice Chair and Maori/Pasifika Liaison for AVCA, the vapers for vapers advocacy group recently formed in New Zealand. (www.avca.org.nz) “From a vaping perspective, if you replace tobacco with nicotine, this is a direct assault against Electronic Cigarettes and vaping, in order to protect profits for BATNZ.”
As is depicted in A Billion Lives, (www.abillionlives.com) the documentary movie that recently had its World Premiere here in NZ in Wellington, the reality is that Electronic Cigarettes and vaping also known as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) in public health will direct profit away from tobacco companies as well as from big Pharma, as their NRT medicines are being tossed aside in favour of the more effective method of vaping to stop smoking. This is documented very effectively in the movie. IIf the very mission from govt and public health to make NZ SmokeFree by 2025, perhaps it is time to display transparency in the processes that are in place from which these decisions, such as the Customs ministers on Tobacco, are made.
In light of the recent controversy regarding electronic cigarettes and vaping in New Zealand, that was outlined clearly in a news segment on Te Karere regarding the use of ENDS by our wahine in Auckland as a means to quit smoking; as well as the recent decision by Wellington City Council to include vaping in its SmokeFree bylaws, and the lack of official guidance from the Ministry of Health, as has been asked for by not only AVCA, but other organisations and individual vapers across the country, we cannot help but question the process by which this decision was made as it is being lauded by BATNZ.
As for the three tobacco giants in NZ, AVCA feels that there needs to be a statement from all three on exactly what Tobacco Control (TC) measures they are actually wanting to also be implemented. There is a decided indignation from the vaping community on the “smoke and mirrors” back room handling of TC measures by big Tobacco which, combined with the lack of official guidance from the government, that perhaps these “additional” TC measures that BATNZ and the other two Tobacco companies in NZ want will include the severe limitation and possible banning of any liquid nicotine product used in ENDS to be legally available for retail use in New Zealand. This would be a great loss for not only the community groups who currently run the smoking to vaping programs such as Vape2Save in Auckland and Vape It Forward, which is run as a volunteer mentoring service nationwide through AVCA, but may stymy any further improvements in reaching the SmokeFree 2025 goal set by central government.
Steve Dohmen, Vice Chair & Maori/Pasifika Liaison
