The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill 2024 is currently before the Health Select Committee and risks becoming more stringent should some submitters be successful. Vape Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson has criticised the bill for failing to address the number of specialist vape shops operating.
The sale of vaping products is no longer the laissez-faire exercise New Zealanders enjoyed prior to the previous Labour Government. Purchasers must be aged 18, which I have no objection to, and stores cannot open within 300 metres of a school or marae. However, the new bill proposes to further restrict the location of vape stores, banning them from operating within 100m of an early childhood centre. How this is supposed to protect children from vaping is unclear, because there doesn’t appear to be an epidemic of three-year-olds purchasing vapes.
