Sometimes it may seem as if policymakers will never see the light and embrace vaping, but there is hope, just look at New Zealand’s 180-degree turn. 

Not that long ago, the sale and supply of ALL nicotine vapes and e-liquids was banned in New Zealand through the widening of the scope of the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990 (SFEA).

As recent as March 2017, the Kiwi Ministry of Health claimed there was insufficient evidence ‘to recommend e-cigarettes confidently as a smoking cessation tool.’

If vaping had been legalised it would have helped achieve New Zealand’s goal of reducing smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels, making it essentially smokefree by 2025.

Instead, New Zealand’s smoking rates remained stubbornly high while vaping seemed like a lost cause.

And yet, by October 2017, following uproar from vaping activists, the government had done a complete U-turn, announcing a new policy of supporting smokers to ‘switch to significantly less harmful products like e-cigarettes.’ Their conversion was later supported by a government-run website which educated citizens on the facts of vaping, and its use as a smoking cessation tool.

By 2018, the Associate Health Minister accepted there was ‘a general consensus that vaping is much less harmful than smoking’ and that the government must ensure ‘cigarette smokers have access to a lower-risk alternative.’

This was followed up with a change in the law which allowed all vaping products to be sold wherever smoking tobacco products are sold. Alongside this legalisation, age restrictions and safety regulations for products were also introduced. The result was a set of balanced, proportionate rules which ensured that adults are able to vape freely as a tool to help them quit smoking.

New Zealand’s vaping conversion was complete, and the results were clear to see: as Kiwi vaping rates increased, smoking rates decreased. A logical policy with logical outcomes.

So what’s the lesson for vaping activists?

If the New Zealand government can make such a complete U-turn, then other governments which currently have an anti-vaping stance can also be persuaded to abandon their crusade and see the light.