"Flavors in e-juice help smokers quit"
After a long debate on e-cigarettes, New Zealand has decided to change the law regulating vejp products. The authorities believe that e-cigarettes are an effective method to quit smoking. At the same time, the government wants to limit the range of flavors in the e-liquid. Juices sold outside vejpshoppes may only taste like tobacco or menthol.
New Zealand, which has one of the world's toughest tobacco laws, wants to restrict flavored e-juice in general trade and online purchases. The ban applies to all flavors except tobacco and menthol. But at the same time, the government wants e-cigarettes to be available "as far as possible" to smokers who want to use vejpning to quit smoking. The age limit for buying nicotine and vejp products will be 18 years.
"Flavors can attract young people to start using e-cigarettes. But flavors also play an important role in smokers switching to e-cigarettes" says New Zealand's Health Minister Jeny Salesa to the state TV channel TVNZ.
Specialist shops (such as vejpshoppar) will therefore still be allowed to sell flavored e-juice, without restrictions, in New Zealand.
Important for public health
The Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA) welcomes the new laws. New Zealand's laws have a clear harm reduction perspective, the organization says. And they stand in stark contrast to neighboring Australia, where sales of vejp products are heavily regulated. Nicotine-containing e-liquid cannot be sold at all in Australia and e-cigarettes are regulated, as in Sweden, on the same model as cigarettes.
"New Zealand is getting exemplary legislation on e-cigarettes. The products are decoupled from tobacco. And at the same time, the government recognizes that vejpning poses lower risks to smokers than cigarettes. The law allows smokers to switch from cigarettes to less harmful alternatives. And that they can do so safely." Writes ATHRA in a press release.
Long debate on e-cigarettes
The New Zealand law follows a heated debate on e-cigarettes in the country. Until 2018, nicotine-containing e-liquid was banned from sale along the same lines as in neighboring Australia.
But when health authorities, together with doctors and scientists, at the University of Auckland presented several reports on how vejpning can effectively work to reduce smoking, turned the debate around. Several other organizations in the country have also chosen to consider e-cigarettes as a way to reduce the risks of nicotine use.
"Although we need to monitor and follow up on unknown risks of vejpning, e-cigarettes are still a significantly less harmful and cheaper alternative to cigarettes," writes the influential Heart Foundation New Zealand on its website.
Similar to the EU directive on e-cigs
The government presented its proposal for new laws on electronic cigarettes in February. The laws are expected to be passed in the coming days.
The New Zealand laws are similar in many ways to the European legislation on e-cigarettes. The EU does not ban flavored e-liquid in any form. However, as in the EU directive, all products must be registered with the authorities before being sold. Also marketing will be restricted, with the aim of not attracting young people and non-smokers.
