Govt doesn't know how many vape shops are 300m from schools, despite new policy

Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Anyone aged 14 or under won't ever be able to legally buy tobacco in New Zealand when a new law takes effect under the Government's smokefree plan. (First published December 9, 2021.)

The government does not know how many vape shops are already operating within 300m of schools –despite launching a new policy on it.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins unveiled new regulations on June 6 with Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, which included promising to keep new vape retailers more than 300m from schools and marae.

The policy won’t apply to existing retailers already inside the boundary.

But despite a national database of 1300 specialist vape retailers, the government doesn’t know how many of those are already trading within 300m of a school.

* Health Minister Ayesha Verrall to unveil plan stop young people vaping

* Government proposes new measures to cut 'too high' youth vaping rates

The new plans also limit what vape flavours can be called, in order to make them less attractive to young people. (File photo)

Stuff asked the Ministry of Health for the figure, but they couldn’t provide the answer.

Instead, they provided information on a list of approved specialist vape retailers, but said the Vaping Regulatory Authority “does not compile or store information on the number of specialist vape retailers by region”.

And when Stuff asked Verrall the same question, a spokesperson for the Health Ministers’ office did not provide the information either.

“…a minister in Parliament does not have data the ministry doesn’t have,” the spokesperson said. “The Minister of Health is advised by the Ministry of Health on policy issues.”

On June 6, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced a new policy that means new specialist vape retailers won’t be allowed to open within 300m of a school or marae.

It’s not been specified exactly when the policy will come into effect, but broadly within the next six months.

Action for Smokefree (ASHNZ) director Ben Youdan said the policy misses the mark in curbing youth vaping and doesn’t address how and why young people are vaping.

“We take the view that the 300m boundary is arbitrary, and research on access to vape stores and youth vaping rates in schools has not observed any relationship between high rates and density of outlets,” Youdan said.

“Our concern is that the policy looks good, but does not tackle the actual policy problem.”

When asked about how the 300m boundary was arrived at, the Ministry said the distance was chosen to make sure it “generally extends outside the grounds of schools without completely prohibiting new stores from being established.”

Youdan said research has shown young people often don’t buy vapes from retail stores, but online and through friends.

“We would have preferred a policy that restricted sales to R21 for vapes and cigarettes. We have also advocated for standardised age verification for online sales,” he said.

“Measures that exist to protect people elsewhere, but not for a major source of underage vape access.”

According to Google Maps, vape retailers in Auckland are already operating 300m from schools.

Auckland Junior High-school, with over a thousand students between 10 and 15, has a Shosha vape store 300m away, approximately a 5-minute walk.

My Vape Shop in Glenfield is less than 300m from both Glenfield Intermediate and Glenfield Primary - less than a 4-minute walk from either.

National Party health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti said the opposition hopes to do more to curb youth vaping.

Northcote College also has a vape store in the process of opening directly across the road.

Meanwhile, one of the country’s biggest schools, Auckland Grammar, has four vape stores just outside the 300m boundary, about a 7-minute walk.

Where does this claim come from, and does it stack up? (First published June 2022)

It’s also unclear whether dairies selling vapes are captured by the policy - something anti-smoking advocates say is concerning.

“The [omission of] specialist vape retailers in dairies is an example of how the rushed policy failed to consider consequences,” Youdan says.

Opposition health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti said the National Party would go further to reduce vaping harm.

“We would expect the Government to collect data on how many specialist vape retailers are already within the 300m boundary of schools,” Reti said.

“We support these measures but will be also looking at other countries like Australia who have gone a step further and banned all vapes except on prescription.”

At the launch of the policy, Minister Verrall said existing retailers weren’t captured because they’d followed the rules at the time. The Prime Minister also said the policy went far enough.

“It's one thing to make it expensive and difficult for young people to start and carry on vaping… it's another to do something that gets in the way of adults who are using vaping as an alternative to smoking,” Hipkins said.

Ministry of Health research has found the increase in daily vaping has exceeded the decrease in daily smoking, meaning more people who have never smoked, are vaping.

It has been illegal to sell vapes to under 18s in New Zealand since 2020 and it is illegal for under 18s to enter specialist vape retailers.

The Government’s new policy is also phasing out sales of disposable vapes from August this year and have a 3-month lead-in time, giving retailers time to remove them.

The removal intends to discourage young people from starting and continuing vaping, as disposable vapes are currently the cheapest to buy and easiest to use.

Some in the industry are concerned the new rules could affect small business owners already targeted by crime.

A spokesperson for Mairangi Bay Vape Store, which is close to Murrays Bay Intermediate, said new rules will have consequences for their business.

“Disposable vapes are our most popular product among customers, this policy is likely to have a big impact on us,” the spokesperson said.

Alexsia Hopkins is an undergraduate student at Massey University on an internship with Stuff.