Drug trends
Tobacco is the single largest cause of preventable death in New Zealand and is the second-most common recreational drug after alcohol.
People who die from smoking tobacco lose, on average, 14 years of life compared to non-smokers. Tobacco is the only known consumer product that kills half of its users, when used as the manufacturer directs.
New Zealand has initiated many legislative measures for tobacco control.
- In 1990 the Smoke-free Environments Act was passed. Restrictions on indoor smoking in workplaces were enacted, the age of legal purchase tobacco was set at 16 years and tobacco marketing, advertising and sponsorship were restricted.
- In 1995, tobacco advertising in shops was removed and all tobacco sponsorship ceased.
- In 1998, the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act raised the legal age of purchase to 18 years, banned the sale of cigarettes in packets less than 20 and reduced in-shop tobacco advertising and retail incentives.
- The Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 2003 banned smoking in all licensed premises (e.g. bars and restaurants) and all other indoor workplaces, coming into effect on 10 December 2004.
Recent tobacco trends from 2008 show:
- the estimated smoking rate for people aged 15 years and over for 2008 is 21 percent. This is generally consistent with the downward trend over the last 25 years
- among youth aged 15 to 19 years, 20.8 percent were current smokers in 2008
- half of youth aged 15 to 19 years had never tried smoking. This is significantly higher than in 2006 (39 percent).
- Māori (45.4 percent) and Pacific people (31.4 percent) were more likely to be current smokers compared with the total population aged 15 to 64 years
- people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods were 1.5 times more likely to be smokers than people living in the least deprived.
