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With three-quarters of a million
smokers, and half a million addicted to nicotine, aren’t you asking
for civil war to stop cigarette sales?
No. The ban will be supported by
other policies to prepare for the sales ban. For the five years before
any sales ban comes into effect, smokers will be able to buy a nicotine
fix without smoking. People smoke for the nicotine but die from the
smoke. Without the smoke, tobacco is far less dangerous.
Aren’t
you just a bunch of killjoys interfering with smokers’ pleasure?
Smokeless New Zealand’s approach is designed with
smokers’ pleasure in mind. For addicts, smokers’ pleasure, or
taste, or full flavour, means nicotine.
Assuring addicts they
can still get their nicotine hit is the easiest way for them to quit
smoking. The smoker begins to switch from all cigarettes one day,
replacing the cigarettes gradually over a period of a week or two, until
the switch to nicotine is complete. Nicotine addicts who quit smoking
survive to face their addiction as a separate issue, when they are ready.
Smokers when asked, “If you had your time
over again, would you start smoking?” over 80% say ‘No.’ National Statistics Omnibus survey for ASH. Oct,. Nov 2001. London: National Statistics 2002.
Isn’t this prohibition?
·
Will
it be an offence for cigarette makers and retailers to make and sell
cigarettes? Yes.
·
Will
you penalize smokers from smoking, possessing, or growing tobacco for
personal use? No.
Smoking and tobacco use
will not be prohibited, only the sale of smoking tobacco products.
Smokers will still be able to smoke as now, and to carry and possess
cigarettes, and grow their own tobacco. The law is designed only to stop
the lethal drug trade in smoking tobacco products. To be effective, the
ban would also include internet and mail order sales.
Prohibiting has two different
meanings.
We do not want a marijuana type law. We do not want any law to ban
possession, smoking, or growing for personal use. We oppose penalizing
smokers in this way.
The other meaning is prohibiting the sale of cigarettes. We agree
with such a ban on sales, provided that smokers can buy a nicotine fix
from smokeless products.
Aren’t there enough anti-smoking groups around? Why do we
need another?
EndSmoking NZ speaks to smokers not currently
reached by anti-smoking groups
·
EndSmoking NZ aims to reduce the death risks for smokers who
don’t want to quit or phone the Quitline today or ever.
· EndSmoking NZ knows these smokers’ lives can mostly be saved if they can take
their nicotine without smoking.
SmokeLess policies are new and have not yet
adopted by all anti-smoking groups.
·
EndSmoking NZ
supports a smorgasboard of policy options designed to speed up the
reduction of smoking.
·
EndSmoking NZ
acts on the basis that tobacco products contain nicotine but vary in
risk.
·
EndSmoking NZ will
consider using both pure nicotine and smokeless tobacco products to
provide nicotine options for smokers.
·
EndSmoking NZ
advocates gradually reducing cigarette nicotine to help smokers break free and quit smoking.
·
EndSmoking NZ
plans to put cigarettes out of the reach of children, by eventually
banning their sale to adults.
·
EndSmoking NZ
advocates the use of tobacco harm reduction policies, in addition to the
existing tobacco control policies and programmes.
Why
ask now for a sales ban now, when 21% of adult smoke? Why not wait and
ask for it when only 5% of adults are smokers?
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On present trends, waiting until only 5% of adults smoke, means
waiting 60 to 100 years.
·
We aim to speed up the reduction in smoking, by making it easier for smokers to quit
smoking, by
Providing alternative
nicotine for smokers to switch to over a five year period, at less cost
than smoking.
Making cigarettes
more pricy and less addictive.
By
the time any sales ban is in place ten years from now, we expect far fewer people will be smoking
A
ban on all sales is needed to
put cigarettes out of the reach of children.
A
ban is justified because
cigarettes have killed 200,000 New Zealanders since 1950, and cigarettes
continue to kill New Zealanders at the rate of one every two hours.
A
cigarette sales ban can save more lives, more rapidly, than any other
known health policy.
Lives will be saved rapidly because
the sales ban does not require all smokers to agree beforehand.
The effect in saving lives will become
permanent. Once enacted the sales ban will stay, as smokers notice health
benefits within weeks.
Public opinion can change – from
28% in favour of no smoking in bars in 2000 to 67% in 2005.
On sales-ban day, media and community
support, and no doubt free nicotine, will be on hand to assist smokers to
break away from smoking. Thereafter any smokers remaining will have to
grow their own.
In case Parliament decides to permit
the sale of oral snuff (smokeless) as in Sweden, as an aid for smokers to quit smoking, then
the same law could lock in a sunset clause to ban the sale of smokeless also,
some 10 to 20 years after ending the sale of cigarettes and other smoked
tobacco.
Nicotine
gum and patches are all very well to help those wanting to quit smoking,
but they are no substitute for a cigarette. What else can you offer a
smoker?
Safe addictive pure nicotine products should be here by 2008. www.endsmoking.org.nz/fastnic.htm
Nasal tobacco snuff is available from tobacconists and can provide
a nicotine hit. www.endsmoking.org.nz/nasalsnuff.htm
Moist oral tobacco snuff currently can only be imported for personal
use. www.endsmoking.org.nz/oral
snuff.
New more effective treatment products to help
smokers quit will soon be available.
Meantime, many health workers are now advising
smokers to use higher doses of nicotine by patch, or gum, or in
combination.
Isn’t
all tobacco bad for you?
The danger
varies by product. If you have never used tobacco, tobacco increases your
risk of disease and addiction, so why start. If you are already addicted
to smoking, smokeless products would reduce your risk greatly. On the other
hand quitting would reduce it most of all.
Smoking
cigarettes past age 35 eventually kills one in two users. Inhaling the
smoke of others cigarettes is about 8% as dangerous as smoking, and
slightly more than the risk of using snuff (5%). Smoking cigars but not
inhaling is of similar risk - about 5% as dangerous as cigarettes.
Smokeless snuff is about 5% as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.
Do you really think the law can
be changed within 5 years?
Yes. For example, the 1990 advertising
ban took 5 years to become law. The ban on smoking in bars took five
years for public opinion to completely change and for the law to be
passed. After the sales ban bill is enacted, another year or more could
be allowed before it takes effect.
Many shops depend on cigarettes
for their profit. Won’t a ban on cigarette sales put them out of
business?
In the years before the sales ban goes
into effect, and after, retailers will have the chance to sell clean
(smokeless) nicotine products and/or smokeless tobacco products, and
build a steady business that way, without killing their customers with
lung cancer or emphysema.
Won’t there be a black
market in tobacco leaf?
Smokers can grow their own tobacco,
dampening the demand for black market tobacco.
Black markets mean higher prices;
smokeless if available dampens the demand from addicts for cigarettes.
If smokeless is sold, smoking tobacco
will no longer have the monopoly of the supply of nicotine.
Smokeless alternatives to smoking will
satisfy smokers’ craving for nicotine, and will be cheaper than
cigarettes are now.
Won’t
there be a black market in manufactured cigarettes?
Manufactured cigarettes require
easily-detected factories for their manufacture; this implies smuggling
from abroad.
Customs already detects smuggled
cigarettes and tobacco in shipped goods. Dogs can also be trained to
sniff for tobacco. New Zealand technology is available now for electronically
sniffing containers at port of entry for tobacco.
In the case of small parcels, the
recipients will want them all for their personal use.
Incoming tourists would be allowed
only to import enough for personal use.
Won’t smokers order their
cigarettes by mail order from overseas via the internet?
Some may be doing so already, to avoid
paying high New Zealand tobacco excise rates. If necessary Customs can detect tobacco
odors in the mail rooms where customs inspection of inbound mail takes
place. It is thus possible to monitor cigarette imports. It would be
necessary to ban import for personal use in advance of any law passed to
lower cigarette nicotine content or ban cigarette sales in New Zealand. Otherwise full-flavour cigarettes could be
mail-ordered from overseas and sold for high prices.
Isn’t nicotine bad for you
in its own right?
No. Nicotine by itself as found in
nicotine chewing gum has been tested on thousands of smokers for five
years with zero risk, even though some of them kept smoking. Nicotine in
cigarette smoke, however, is part of a dangerous cocktail including smoke
gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, and poisons such as
arsenic.
Nicotine in any shape or form is
just another addictive product. Do we need it?
Many smokers have found if they stop
smoking then take nicotine for a few weeks it helps them to quit with
more success. In the same way, nicotine for longer and in bigger doses
may help more smokers to quit without relapsing.
Tobacco snuff is just another
addictive nicotine product. Do we need it?
Tobacco snuff is tobacco and virtually
the same as the tobacco in cigarettes. Highly addicted smokers need it,
or something like it. Such smokers may not consider quitting smoking
until they can switch to a satisfying alternative such as snuff (or fast
acting nicotine). Snuff gives a more effective hit than nicotine gum or
patches. Tobacco snuff is addictive but is 95% less hazardous than
cigarettes.
What
about tourists who wish to smoke in New
Zealand.
Adult tourists age 18 and over would
be permitted to bring in the duty-free allowance of 200 cigarettes, and
to obtain a similar amount after ten days from a duty free shop.
Table 1. Comparison of nicotine gum and patch
versus low risk oral tobacco snuff
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Nicotine gum and patch
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Low risk oral snuff in Sweden
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Length of use
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Sold in pharmacies widely for 25 years
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1 million daily use snuff. Been used many times a
day for a lifetime by many Swedes.
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Safety
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Safe on follow-up of 5 years. No known extra risks
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Estimated to have 5% of the risk of cigarette
smoking.
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Pregnancy
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Recommended if necessary to prevent smoking.
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May be best avoided. Little known of any extra
effects beyond its nicotine content.
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Cancer of mouth
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Unknown
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Rare
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Addictive potential and satisfaction
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Low risk of addiction. Could increase if fast acting
nicotine was obtained.
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Addictive. Fast acting.
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Legal status
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General sale permitted.
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Nasal, not oral snuff can be sold in NZ.
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For additional
information see www.endsmoking.org.nz
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