• March 28, 2024

You know it makes sense

 You know it makes sense

A proposal put forward in New Zealand could, if enacted, transfer sales of cigarettes to not-for-profit agencies that would be required to reduce sales, according to a University of Otago story relayed by the TMA.

In a new article published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, researchers led by public health lawyer Louise Delany of the University of Otago in Wellington, proposed a new law requiring that if specific prevalence reduction targets for 2020 were not reached, permission to sell tobacco would be transferred to not-for-profit’ or health agencies.

These agencies would be required by law to reduce sales.

The researchers said the proposed law would require the setting of minimum prices for tobacco products, the monitoring and control of tobacco industry profits, and the regulation of product design and tobacco-product constituents.

A new authority within the Ministry of Health would be responsible for monitoring tobacco control progress.

Public health professor Richard Edwards said that the “law would ensure that children and young people experimenting with cigarettes would be likely to find them less appealing, not so attractive to smoke and less addictive; and fewer would become regular smokers”.

Researcher, professor Nick Wilson, said the proposed law would enable the government to “properly control a dangerous addictive product, as it does for other dangerous products and for prescription medicines”.

The proposed law would raise the prices of tobacco products and require the government to organize mass media campaigns to heighten awareness about the health effects of tobacco products.