Price hikes help smokers kick habit
While the country’s latest cigarette price increase has left smokers unhappy, health experts say the rise is effective in encouraging people to quit.
Te Ohu Auahui Mutunga Stop Smoking Service operates in Horowhenua and Manawatu¯ and many of the people it supports have given up smoking because of the cost.
Of the 2274 people referred to the service in 2018, 320 people successfully quit.
Service team leader Ashleigh Kate Wardlaw said the majority of the people using the service came for financial reasons, with health reasons following closely behind.
Akaari Utikere is one of the service’s successful clients; he has been smokefree for a year.
Daughter Rachel, who works for Te Ohu Auahi Mutunga, told him the organisation was giving out free vapes to people trying to quit smoking.
Although he was tempted by the free trial, Utikere wanted to quit because of the price of cigarettes. ‘‘The price was going up quite a bit. I probably spent at least $140 a week.’’
Once Utikere made the switch to using a vape with nicotine, he never looked back. A vegetable harvester by trade, quitting smoking meant physical activity has become easier and he enjoys having extra money.
He found it surprisingly easy to quit once he started using a vape and encourages others to contact smoking cessation services.
‘‘I didn’t think I’d ever give it up,’’ Utikere said. ‘‘I’d been smoking for nearly 41 years.’’
Ministry of Health officials say vaping has the potential to help achieve its goal of New Zealand becoming smokefree by 2025, as it provides a less harmful alternative to cigarettes.
However, the ministry doesn’t yet have enough evidence to recommend vapes as a means of smoking cessation.
Jade Glastonbury, the general manager of vape and e-cigarette supplier The Mushroom Cloud Palmerston North, said he had seen an increase in interest in vaping and e-cigarettes. ‘‘Over the last 18 months, it’s just blown up ... It’s snowballed. There’s stores opening up everywhere.’’
Te Ohu Auahui Mutunga quit coach Marilyn Mckay, who is based at Palmerston North Hospital, said there had been significant drops in smoking rates since taxes were increased.
The service provides support from quit coaches and free nicotine replacement therapy, including gum and patches.
‘‘The tax increase – it’s not just about people stopping smoking, it’s also about young people not taking it up because it’s too expensive for them.’’
Mckay said incentives were an important way to help people quit. The service encourages its clients to stay smokefree by giving them $100 of supermarket vouchers if they stay off cigarettes for four weeks.
A ministry report shows the national smoking rate has declined since annual tax hikes were introduced in 2009. The proportion of the adult population using tobacco products daily has gone from 18.3 per cent in 2006/07 to 13.8 per cent in 2016/17.
The report says quit attempts increase every January following the yearly price hike.