New Zealand bans disposable vapes and threatens anyone caught selling e-cigarettes to children with a £47,000 fine – weeks after repealing the world’s first law aimed at phasing out cigarettes

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will ban disposable e-cigarettes, or vapes, and anyone caught selling them to minors will be fined up to £47,000.

The move comes less than a month after the New Zealand government scrapped a plan to ban people born after January 1, 2009 from buying tobacco cigarettes, effectively raising the age limit by a year every year.

New Zealand Health Minister Casey Costello said e-cigarettes remain “an important smoking cessation tool” and the new regulations will help prevent minors from taking up the habit.

He also added that too many teens use disposable vapes because “they are cheap and remain too easily available.”

“While vaping has contributed to a significant decline in smoking rates, the rapid rise in vaping among young people is a real concern for parents, teachers and health professionals,” Costello said as he outlined changes to New Zealand’s Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act announced.

The Health Minister claimed the New Zealand government is committed to tackling youth vaping and continuing its work to reduce smoking rates.

They hope to reach the smoke-free target of less than five percent of the population smoking daily by 2025 – last year, she said, almost seven percent of the population were daily smokers.

Under the new law, retailers who sell vapes to children under 18 will face a fine increase of 10,000 New Zealand dollars (£4,700) to a maximum of 100,000 New Zealand dollars (£47,000), according to Time.

Individuals face a fine of 1,000 New Zealand dollars (£476).

Costello said the New Zealand Cabinet has also confirmed a series of other smoking-related regulations that will come into effect on March 21.

These include “a ban on vaping products with images of cartoons or toys on the packaging, and limiting flavor names to generic descriptions” that may appeal to young people.

Meanwhile, reusable vape products have until October 1 this year to include removable batteries and child safety mechanisms.

But not all New Zealanders agree with the ban, with some concerned the immediate reduction will have several negative impacts on the country.

Connor Molloy, a spokesman for right-wing pressure group New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, took to X, formerly Twitter, and warned the ban could lead to “a black market for unregulated products.”

‘We welcome the proposed changes regarding stricter penalties and enforcement for those who illegally sell vaping products to minors, but expanding this crackdown to a ban on disposable vapes will simply drive people back to smoking and encourage a black market of unregulated vaping products, such as can be seen in Australia,’ she said.

‘This ban will simply exist [make] it is becoming more difficult and expensive to quit smoking, instead encouraging people to continue smoking or take up smoking again, or to consume black market vaping products whose risks are completely unknown.”

In February, New Zealand repealed a law banning the sale of tobacco for future generations.

The measure would have come into effect in July and would have been the strictest anti-tobacco rules in the world, reducing the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90 percent.

But the new coalition government elected in October quickly repealed the law copied by Britain, despite several researchers and campaigners warning that people could die as a result.

Costello said at the time that the coalition government had committed to reducing smoking but was taking a different regulatory approach to discourage the habit and reduce the harm it caused.

“I will soon present a package of measures to the government to increase the tools available to help people quit smoking,” he said.

He added that vaping regulations would also be tightened to deter young people, which was announced today.

The changes are expected to take effect by the end of the year, the report said RNZ.