December 08, 2017
Reduction in tobacco supply vital for 2025 target
Maori public health group Hapai Te Hauora wants the new Minister responsible for the Aotearoa Smokefree 2025 target to look for ways to cut the supply of tobacco products.
Chief executive Lance Norman says with her Pasifika background, Jenny Salesa will understand the extent of the problem in Maori and Pacific communities where there are still high smoking levels – 35 percent in the case of Maori and 25 percent for Pasifika.
Hapai Te Hauora supports initiatives such as plain packaging and increasing taxes to tobacco, but says the government has been operating without a coherent plan to tie all the elements together and support whanau to quit.
He says cigarettes are still too available.
"So we need to start thinking outside the box and say if we don't want people to die and suffer from tobacco-related illnesses, then how do we get tobacco off the shelves and reduce supply over time. That is the conversation we have to be having in New Zealand rather than tinkering round with smaller initiatives which are working but are not going to be achieving the target for 2025," Mr Norman says.
There also needs to be subsidies for people using e-cigarettes to help them quit.
Copyright © 2017, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com