Medsafe in New Zealand apparently banned cigarettes

[kristin]

According to a recent news story by 3 News in New Zealand, "Medsafe has ruled that nicotine for inhalation is a medicine and insists that more research needs to be done before they can be sold in New Zealand." Based on this criteria, cigarettes - which deliver nicotine (along with 4,000+ other chemicals) for inhalation - are a medicine and are banned for sale.

Curiously, this is not actually the case. While cigarettes, which deliver nicotine for inhalation and are clearly hazardous to public health, remain legal to sell, e-cigarettes containing just nicotine and no toxic levels of any chemicals are banned for sale there.

"It's a start but there's a way to go before, really, there's going to be enough information for us to know about how safe these products are and how effective they are," said Dr. Stewart Jessamine about e-cigarettes.

Dr. Stewart seems to have forgotten that smoking "is the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand, accounting for around 4300 to 4600 deaths per year." These 4600 smokers obviously could not or would not quit using Medsafe-approved "nicotine medicine" products and will continue to smoke, so why is Medsafe not fast-tracking the research and approval of a product which contains just 3 low-risk main ingredients: nicotine, propylene glycol and food flavoring?

Read Full Article: Wisconsin Vapers Blog: Medsafe in New Zealand apparently banned cigarettes

 

[BardicDruid]

And from the same country that did the first major study of e-cigs and what's in them, I guess the corporations are running the world.

 

[Vocalek]

I don't think that the Medsafe announcement is recent. In December 2010, Dr. Laugesen wrote about it: EndSmoking NZ e-News

 

[kristin]

No, the Medsafe announcement isn't recent - this post is in response to a recent news report on 3 News in NZ, which mentions the Medsafe decision. The link to the news report is in the article: Electronic cigarette debate sparks up again - Lifestyle - Video - 3 News