May 14, 2019
Retailers ignore tobacco age limit
A two week blitz of controlled purchase operations by Auckland Regional Public Health Service in central Auckland has identified nine retailers illegally selling tobacco to teenagers.
Health improvement manager Dean Adam says the nine included dairies, convenience stores, superettes, a petrol station and a vape and hookah store.
Sales people can be fined between $500 and $10,000.
Mr Adam says the service is targeting under age sales because the average age of starting smoking is just 14.8 years, even though the legal age for sales is 18.
Around one in seven New Zealanders aged 15 or over are already smoking, with Māori and Pacific youth over-represented.
Nearly half of the young people who smoke say they want to stop, but only one in five of those who try actually manage to stay smoke free.
Many of the controlled purchase operations have been in communities where people are already smoking more and dying earlier than in other parts of Auckland.
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