According to The Post on September 13th, New Zealand's Deputy Minister of Health, Casey Costello, announced on Thursday (12th) the "Smoke-free Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Act (No 2)," which completely bans disposable e-cigarettes and significantly increases fines for selling e-cigarettes to minors. The act also strengthens regulations for e-cigarette specialty shops to prevent young people from accessing e-cigarettes.
However, Charyl Robinson, co-founder of the anti-vaping organization "Vape Free Kids," stated that even with increased enforcement efforts, these officials are still "no match" when faced with a large number of retail outlets.
According to the organization's latest official statistics, there are over 7500 retail outlets, including dairy stations and gas stations.
Robinson stated that health department officials working with law enforcement officers are also facing issues of staff and budget cuts.
Even with the approval of hundreds of new enforcement officers by the minister, they still rely on health department staff to translate on-the-ground work into prosecutable cases.
Xiaoming He, the owner of a dairy shop in Christchurch, has become the first e-cigarette retailer to be prosecuted for violating the Smoke-free Environments and Regulated Products Act of 1990. He was found guilty in August.
Although e-cigarettes have helped some people quit smoking, they have also introduced many teenagers who have never smoked to e-cigarettes. These children who would not have otherwise smoked have become collateral victims. We have thousands of addicted teenagers, many of whom have obtained e-cigarettes from unscrupulous retailers. This is a much larger problem than the minister is willing to admit.
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