Health NZ gives out 7000 free vapes in two months

Health NZ has handed out 7000 vapes and over 6500 refills for free in two months. This is part of an intitaive to help smokers quit - and includes a $500k contract to NZ vape company Alt.

Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths tells Nick what the decision was behind this initiative, what opposers are saying and how this plan compares worldwide.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
B is a good morning, Nick, So tell me, I mean,
when you work this out, this is your story when
you actually started researching this, is it as bad as
what it sounds like, because it does sound pretty bad
to me.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, it kind of depends on what role you see
for vaping in the in the in the health sector, right,
I mean, look, it's it's it's vapor as opposed to
smoke and car so there is a very strong argument
to be made there that it is safer. The difficulty
is is that New Zealand has managed to significantly reduce
its smoking rate by using things like gum and patches.

(00:51):
Why do we now need this is the question that's
been post by by health experts. Why do we now
need to start using something like vapes when we have
those other tools in the toolkit?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well? I want I want I want that answer as well,
and I want to come without a bill of five
hundred and seventy five for two months.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, I mean, this is the interesting thing, right.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Health New Zealand started the pilot program last year and
it all happened very quietly. They signed a deal with
a vape company. They gave out about three thousand vapes
for five hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. They had
varying degrees of success, right, Look, there was some success there.
Forty three hundred people quit smoking within four weeks, just
over fourteen hundred of those people, about thirty three percent

(01:34):
of them got a vapor cait although Health New Zealand
did give out three thousand cats, so there is some
degree of success there. As a result, they decided that
extend the pilot. To be fair, this new deal is
a lot cheaper. It's five hundred thousand dollars and they
have given out so far about seven thousand vaping devices
and sixty seven thousand refills, which is about half of

(01:57):
the contracts worth.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
So you can expect probably.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Around fourteen thousand vaping devices would be what the contract
is worth. So look, the proof will be in the
putting to see what has come out after this fall
program has been rolled out. But the trial, as I say,
did have some interesting figures attached to it.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Ethan, in your research for this story, did you find
any other country in the world that was giving out
free vaping kits to stop people smoking.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Look, there are some, there are some, and there are
of course other countries as well where vaping recreationally is
a lot.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Tighter than what it is here in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I mean I was over in Australia last week, for example,
and over there, I mean you don't see anyone vaping.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
To get a vape in Queensland, in particularly, you.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Need a prescription from a GP. So look, I think
it's probably fair to say that in many respects, New
Zealand kind of dropped the ball with vaping. When you
can walk down a main street and see various vaping
shops with the bright colors, and then even in small
towns around the country, you know there'll at least be
one place where you can buy them.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
I think it's fair to say that the.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Country kind of dropped them all when it came to
regulating this sort of stuff. But even in other countries
around the world, I mean third world countries as well,
for example Vietnam, it's illegal to vape over there. So
I mean it is interesting that New Zealand is in
this point where vapes are so cheap and freely available,
But also our Health Department has decided that it's a

(03:26):
good idea to start giving them out.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
It feels like to me when you talk about Vietnam
in Australia, it says to me that we are in
a really strange situation when places are making it really
difficult to vape, to get vapes, and were just dishing
them out free.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah yeah, I mean, look, dishing them out is one
thing for people that are smoking, right, and as I say,
there's the argument that it could be less harmful, But
of course then you've got the other fears of how
accessible and cheap they are. I mean it's sort of
reduced now in recent years, but sort of five years
ago we were having massive smoking epidemics within vaping epidemics,

(04:04):
I should say, within schools around the country. So look,
the government has tried to crack down both the previous
government and this government on the rules around vaping. But
as I say, it'll be interesting to see the results
from this trial.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Do we know the stats for how easy it is
to give up vaping?

Speaker 1 (04:23):
No?

Speaker 4 (04:23):
I mean it's such a new thing.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
I mean that the studies of vaping are not really definitive.
I mean, and all of the stuff smoking included, which
is why smoking was so prolific for so many years.
It's the long term effects, right, and with vaping only
really mainstream since what you'd say, twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen,
we don't have.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
That long evidence yet.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
On what it does. And in terms of how you
leave a vaping addiction, how you can step away from it. Well,
the argument could also be made, of course, is that
vaping in some respects has a higher nicotine level to smoking.
Not always, but it can have a high nicotine level
to smoking. And obviously with cigarettes, you know you're sort
of lighting one at a time, maybe having a quick
breaks in having another one. With vape it is constant,

(05:08):
you constantly have access to what you're inhaling. So look,
it is difficult. I've known people that have been on
the vapes and have tried to quit and it is
very very difficult. But in terms of evidence on that
not really that strong.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
But thanks very much, Ethan, I appreciate appreciate you getting
up this morning and having a chat to us. Ethan
Griffith News Talks. There be political reporter who actually broke
the story. Great to have him on the show.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks there Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio