What next for tobacco control?

Stuff reports:

A study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today estimates that, even with steep tobacco tax rises and the introduction of plain packaging, tens of thousands of Kiwis will still be smoking by 2025.

One of the study authors, Otago University professor Tony Blakely, said the Government needed to start thinking about more “radical solutions” if it was committed to the goal.

Those included requiring smokers to have a tobacco licence, forcing tobacco firms to phase out nicotine, restricting tobacco sales to pharmacies, or subsidising less harmful alternatives such as e-cigarettes.

Blakely said it was too early to endorse any of those options, but a business-as-usual approach would not work. “We are going to need one of these extra radical things that hasn’t been tried anywhere else,” he said.

“Even a packet of cigarettes costing $40 will not be enough.”

The idea of licensing smokers sounds totalitarian.

The idea of restricting sales to pharmacies, recognising it is a drug, is worth debating.

Also worth considering is what role e-cigarettes can play, as they are exponentially less harmful.