Young people should be protected from taking up vaping but policies must be proportionate and reduce the appeal and addictiveness of both tobacco and vaping products.
The coalition has made good on pledges to repeal, reduce or reverse the previous government’s policies. But the real test will be paying for its own policies and staying stable in the process.
If the government is serious about reducing the cost of smoking, it should stick with Labour’s smokefree legislation rather than freezing the price of smoked tobacco products.
Modelling studies estimate the smokefree generation policy could halve smoking prevalence within 14 years among people aged 45 and younger and achieve a more than a five-fold health gain for Māori.