Kerre Woodham: Parents concerned about vaping - what can you do about it?

We were rather overtaken by events yesterday, but it didn't really matter because Labour kept changing its views on the best policy to combat youth vaping.

In June, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced the Government would be stopping new vape shops from being allowed to open within 300 metres of schools or marae, cutting down on disposable vapes and restricting the descriptions on product flavours.

Potentially enticing names like ‘cotton candy’ and ‘strawberry Jelly doughnut ‘which accompany products will be prohibited and only generic names describing the flavour, such as ‘berry’, to be allowed.

All vaping devices sold will soon need to have removable or replaceable batteries. So far, so good, but not good enough for a party that sees itself facing a political spanking.

They thought there might be more votes in coming down tough on vapes, so yesterday the Government announced it would cap vape shops at 600.

Currently there are more than 1300 specialist vape shops and as you'll know, just about every corner dairy, service station sells the product too.

The Government says it will also set up a licensing system for vape shops if they're elected, a process that will take about six months.

National has indicated it's broadly supportive of the direction the Government’s travelling, so they too will be looking at restrictions on sale to try and prohibit kids getting their digits on them.  

Possibly cutting the number of outlets is too little, too late - and at the same time that Ayesha Verrell and Chris Hipkins were announcing that you couldn't open a vape store within 300 metres of school or marae, dozens have gained approval from the Ministry of Health to open near schools.

So they all madly got in before September 21 and the damage is done, so I would really like to hear from those of you who are concerned about your kids vaping.

Is there anything you can do about it? 

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