TOBACCO

[Ferney]

Banning tobacco and alcohol would just make the criminal gangs richer.   

[Magoo]

I agree Caps and while they are at it .... do the same to alcohol!

What a good idea.  It might stop some of the stupid posts we get in here.

[reality]

..."What a good idea.  It might stop some of the stupid posts we get in here."

...yes...and maybe NZ could form some sort of an alliance with North Korea...as our levels of freedom would be similar

[Magoo]

Took a bet you would reply.

[reality]

..."Took a bet you would reply."

...yes you can count on me when  someone makes an idiotic statement

[Ferney]

Prohibition worked in the USA.  Yeah right.

[Magoo]

It worked just about as well as a tongue in the cheek comment.   Somethings just fly right past the catcher.   Oh well.        Off to do something interesting.

[AnFaolchudubh]

Prohibition worked in the USA.  Yeah right.

It worked in the King country too

Yeah right

[reality]

...."Off to do something interesting."


..excellent...and thanks very much for coming 

[nitpicker1]

for somethings  read  Some things (spacing added to improve comprehension for those who cannot read between the lines)

Insert Quote
It worked just about as well as a tongue in the cheek comment.   Somethings just fly right past the catcher.   Oh well.        Off to do something interesting.

it was working ok in Otago during WW2, 'cos the cop who had heard rumours that my to-be-fil was sly-grogging sat on the sack-covered (COLD) still in his garage and didn't realise what he was missing.
Much of NZ was still "dry" when I started voting; the option to retain or discontinue "temperance" was part of the voting papers for at least 3 of the NZ elections when licensing polls were held on election day.

Hang on 'Goo, I'll come with you







 

[Magoo]

Hang on 'Goo, I'll come with you

Are we there yet? 

[Lovelee]

I know a couple of years I voted there was the question re prohibition.

[Caprox]

Smoking serves no purpose. Cigarettes kill those that use them in slow painful ways (I saw a family member die slowly and painfully over a period of about 5 years due to lung cancer, so i know what i am talking about). Cigarettes stink. Smokers have stinky breath, stinky clothes, stinky hair, stinky furniture, the list goes on. Ever been in a lift when a smoker gets in after just having a cigarette? What a stench! I say maybe we should keep them legal, but slap a $50 'stink tax' on every packet. Then add another $50 'dirty filthy mess tax' on top, to pay for the cost of cleaning up all those disgusting discards cigarette butts they leave all over the place. Lets keep adding taxes to ciggies until a single packet is worth more than a weeks wages.

Smokers are gross. The only people worse, are cyclists.

[Lovelee]

I dont give 2 shits who this involves .. tho it would hardly get a mention if it wasnt him ...

Here we see the smoking police in action...


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10870271

Matthew Ridge's run-in with bouncers at a Viaduct bar in central Auckland started over a cigarette, a witness has said.

As reported in the Herald on Sunday last week, the former All Black and league international was thrown out of Mantells on the Water 10 days ago and physically restrained by bouncers outside, as this photo, taken by a witness, shows.

Ridge claimed in the NZ Herald this week that he sustained nerve damage after having his arm held up his back.

A witness to the incident, but not the person who took the photo, said Matthew appeared to be having a normal conversation with estranged daughter Jaime at the APN Outdoor party before things got out of hand.

The eyewitness, who did not want to be named, said she saw Matthew approach Jaime inside the venue.

"They looked like they were having a pretty normal conversation. Matthew and Jaime were both with friends but their friends had given them space to talk."

Venue security approached Ridge and asked him to put out a cigarette. Ridge complied but was said to be argumentative. "Matthew looked drunk. He was being friendly to Jaime but rude to everyone else."

Security then asked him to leave and the two Ridges went outside. The witness said something upset Matthew and he became agitated. Venue security intervened and physically restrained Ridge on a car bonnet.

An upset Jaime attempted to calm the situation but was unsuccessful and left with friends.

In a tweet in the days following, Jaime said: "There is nothing worse than a drama queen trouble maker." It's unclear whether Jaime was referring to her father.

[Magoo]

Oh dear.  The Ridges will do anything to make themselves noticed.       Wankers the lot of them.

[Justic]

Smoking serves no purpose. Cigarettes kill those that use them in slow painful ways (I saw a family member die slowly and painfully over a period of about 5 years due to lung cancer, so i know what i am talking about). Cigarettes stink. Smokers have stinky breath, stinky clothes, stinky hair, stinky furniture, the list goes on. Ever been in a lift when a smoker gets in after just having a cigarette? What a stench! I say maybe we should keep them legal, but slap a $50 'stink tax' on every packet. Then add another $50 'dirty filthy mess tax' on top, to pay for the cost of cleaning up all those disgusting discards cigarette butts they leave all over the place. Lets keep adding taxes to ciggies until a single packet is worth more than a weeks wages.

Smokers are gross. The only people worse, are cyclists.

I am sure you do know what you are talking about at some level Caps but one thing you haven't seemed to have grasped is just how hard it can be to overome an addiction.

That is something I know about as I gave up finally 10 years ago and it aint easy.  It's not so much the stopping it's the starting again that is the issue.

I also watched my Dad die a slow death with Emphysema.  He was diagnosed at 66 and died at 82.  In effect the we lost our Dad at 66 as he had nom quality of life.  He finally stopped smoking at 73.

We always know the answers to everyon elses problems in life, just like we are the best parents when we don't have children.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from the HERALD on SUNDAY....

Inside the gates at Big Tobacco's happy place

The Government wants the tobacco industry gone by 2025
but defiant cigarette manufacturers claim they will
still be going strong. Their slogan: “We can!”

By RUSSELL BLACKSTOCK  | 9:12AM - Sunday, October 13, 2013


A general view of Imperial Tobacco, Petone. — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.

CHRIS SYRIGOS is peering through a glass panel on the front of one of his megabucks, state-of-theart cigarette-making machines.

Syrigos, manager of New Zealand's only fag factory, is watching some of the 19 million smokes a day his company produces whizz past at an astonishing speed.

The air in the large cutting and packaging room, on the second floor of Imperial Tobacco's sprawling plant at Petone, Lower Hutt, is heavy with an overpowering smell of menthol.

The smell is all part of an order for five million menthol cigarettes bound for Australia.

The cigarettes are being decanted into bumper-sized boxes of 50 at the rate of 8000 per minute. A small army of packers is busy making sure the delivery for across the Tasman is right on time, as usual.

Syrigos, an American who has previously managed food, steel and mining companies, isn't quite sure how many packs of 50 will be rolling off the production line for Imperial's Aussie customers today. There are almost too many to count.

"For New Zealand, Australia and other markets, we make packs ranging from 20s to 50s and pretty much everything else in between," he explains.

"It is difficult keeping track of the volume of boxes and different brands we make. It is easier just to count the cigarettes in the millions."

Welcome to the world of Big Tobacco where, despite increasing numbers of smokers stubbing out each year, profits are still eye-wateringly large. In the face of increasing pressure from anti-smoking lobbyists, the three main players in New Zealand's tobacco industry — British American Tobacco, Imperial and Philip Morris — are all still raking it in.

Last year, BAT's local group — which sells Dunhill, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike cigarettes — posted a profit after tax of $115m. Philip Morris' (New Zealand) net profit was $993,000 and Imperial Tobacco recorded a net profit of$20.9m, up from $19.5mthe year before.

But the anti-smoking lobbyists insist the cigarette companies are beginning to hurt. In recent years, the tobacco industry has taken hits with the introduction of smokefree bars and restaurants, graphic health warnings emblazoned on packs, price hikes and retail display bans.

Now, campaigners want New Zealand to wheel out plain packaging. Researchers are concentrating on the Government target of a largely smokefree New Zealand by 2025 and claim to have more weapons at the ready, such as axing duty-free sales, banning smoking in cars or near schools, and licensing retailers.

If all of this is worrying the New Zealand tobacco industry, no one has told the executives at Imperial's headquarters. Sitting in the company's smart, ground-floor boardroom — complete with an outdoor "smoking deck" — marketing manager Brendan Walker is in a pretty defiant mood.

Imperial exports almost 80 percent of its products to Australia and about 2 percent to Pacific nations. And the 700,000 people in New Zealand who still light up need to be to catered for, he says. Imperial's best-selling brands include JPS, Horizon and Peter Stuyvesant.

"We have been dealing with restrictions and anti-smoking legislation for years," Walker says. "Some of these are more challenging than others but we are used to it.

"Our volume hasn't changed much over the past eight to 10 years and that is because we produce quality, locally-made products, which gives us a big advantage over our competitors. There might be fewer people smoking but there are not fewer people smoking our products."

Walker doesn't think New Zealand will be virtually smokefree by 2025. "To believe that will happen within the next 12 years is folly," he insists, "People will still want to smoke and will choose to smoke."

For the first time in years, Imperial's bosses gave a newspaper, the Herald on Sunday, access to its 6000-sqare-metre compound. The site has been home to tobacco companies from 1929 when Wills built a facility there.

Since 2011, the company-which has a 21.5 percent share of the New Zealand market — has invested more than $50m in an expansion of its facilities to significantly increase exports and establish the plant as a hub for its Asia-Pacific business. The move hardly indicates they are running scared of a dwindling market.

The modern, open-plan marketing department just off the main entrance looks not unlike a call centre.

Emblazoned on the wall are motivational slogans to remind the sales team of the company's core values: "We enjoy", "engage", "I can", "I own" and "we can".


Factory manager Chris Syrigos poses outside the factory at Imperial Tobacco. — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.


Factory worker Esekia Leafa poses with a handful of raw tobacco at Imperial Tobacco.
 — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.


Factory manager Chris Syrigos poses next to a conveyer belt carrying tobacco. — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.

It is only when you enter the loading bay you realise cigarettes are made here at all. Raw tobacco in 200kg bales arrives from Brazil, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Croatia, China, India and Laos. The tobacco is treated with steam and water to give it the correct moisture, before being sent to another floor for manufacturing.

Four high-tech cigarette-making machines then turn that raw material into approximately 120 different packs of cigarettes and 55 different pouches of roll-your-own tobacco. The factory pumps out close to four billion cigarettes annually and more than 850 tonnes of roll your own.

Corporate affairs manager Cathy Edwards explains many of its staff have been there for three generations and a number have worked there for between 30 and 50 years.

"Some people might think there is something dodgy about working in tobacco but when we announced we were expanding, people queued at the front gate," she says.

Special smoking rooms are set aside for staff who like a puff, but no more people smoke at the plant than they would at any other factory, Edwards says. In July, the company also stubbed out its practice of offering free cigarettes to employees, following a Herald on Sunday investigation.

Imperial faced a possible fine of up to $50,000 because it is illegal to distribute and supply cigarettes free. Marketing boss Walker insists the company has a long-term plan to survive and even thrive against the odds.

He is coy about giving too much away, citing this as "commercially sensitive information".

Imperial's parent company in the UK has been making moves into the emerging e-cigarette business in a bid to diversify. But Walker doesn't see the e-cig market taking off here.

"We will continue to focus on our core product, which is our high-quality tobacco portfolio."

Walker also denied suggestions from anti-smoking lobbyists that as numbers of smokers in developed nations continue to fall, the company will simply increase its exports to poorer countries.

"We do export smaller amounts of tobacco to a number of smaller countries in the Pacific area, such as French Polynesia and New Caledonia," he says. "And we do have a firm business plan around our exports but I can't go into details because we don't want our competitors to know.

"But in general, about 80 percent of our business goes to Australia and 20 percent is for the New Zealand market, and we are here to stay."

Competitor British American Tobacco, based in Auckland, employs about 110 people, many of whom are trade representatives. The remainder is management and support staff.

The company is also bullish in the face of New Zealand's smokefree target.

Susan Jones, head of corporate and regulatory affairs, is dismissive that plain packaging will damage its New Zealand operations and believes other measures, including price rises, will fuel a blackmarket.

"The Government's goal is prohibition in all but name," Jones says. "Bhutan, the only country that has tried to prohibit tobacco, has had to change its laws after the black market grew uncontrollably."

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia insists the tobacco companies talking tough simply proves anti-smoking measures are beginning to hit home. "The noose is finally tightening. Our strategies are clearly working," she told the Herald on Sunday.

"If the tobacco companies were so sure plain packaging would be of no consequence, why are they ploughing millions of dollars into making legal challenges?"

Turia believes the community is rising up against the companies too. "People have now had enough of them. We don't want companies in New Zealand who kill up to 5000 people a year. The time is coming when these firms will have to leave the country and I am hopeful that will happen within the time frame we have set out."

Jones rejects that. "Consumer demand is better served by legitimate companies than by the illegal operators that will surely grow as Government makes it increasingly difficult to buy their product of choice," she says.

"There has been a decline in smokers over the past 30 years but there is still a demand for legal tobacco. We expect that to continue."


Tobacco makes its way up a conveyer belt at Imperial Tobacco. — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.


Freshly cut cigarettes make their way through a machine at Imperial Tobacco. — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.


Newly made cigarettes lie in a tray ready for packaging at Imperial Tobacco. — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.

An ad man's dream

Cigarette advertising was banned on New Zealand television and radio 50 years ago in response to a call from the Medical Association.

A decade after that, billboard and cinema ads were scrapped too. But before the link between serious health problems and smoking became common knowledge, landing a tobacco company campaign was the jewel in the crown for advertising firms, tasked with associating smoking with a glamorous lifestyle.

Veteran Kiwi adman Mike Hutcheson was a senior executive with global giants Saatchi and Saatchi in Auckland.

"In the '80s, Benson and Hedges sponsored what is now New Zealand Fashion Week, which would be completely unthinkable today," he says. "It now seems ridiculous, but the main brief from the cigarette companies was to promote smoking as being terribly sophisticated.

"The slogan we had for Benson and Hedges was ‘only the best would do’, which we had translated into French for the New Caledonia market.

You would get run out of town these days for even suggesting promoting smoking in any way at all."

In the early '60s, Hutcheson also worked on campaigns for the old Matinee cigarettes that spanned print, TV, radio and cinema, featuring attractive people singing catchy songs. After the advertising ban, tobacco firms began sponsoring high end sporting events, including boat racing and Formula One, before that too was banned in the mid-'90s.

"Back in the day, there was no expense spared by the cigarettemakers,"Hutcheson says. "Nowadays it would be the equivalent of having giant companies like Telecom or Mitre 10 as clients."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11139438

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Academic wants ban on smoking in public

Academic call for clean air in capital

By TOM HUNT - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Monday, 07 April 2014


SMOKEFREE WELLINGTON?

ONE OF the last refuges for Wellington smokers may be removed if an Otago University researcher gets his way.

New research has mapped out the areas of Wellington where there is the greatest number of people smoking outside cafes and bars. Cuba Street and Courtenay Place are the worst offenders.

George Thomson, from the university's Department of Public Health, is proposing the Government acts to stamp this out — for example, with a blanket ban on smoking within 5 metres of anywhere people are sitting to eat and drink.

For hospitality-dense areas such as parts of Courtenay Place or Cuba Street, this would mean an effective ban on smoking in public.

But far from stigmatising smokers, Thomson said four in five smokers wanted to quit and this would be a further catalyst.

"Smokefree outdoor areas help smokers to quit, help those who have quit to stick with it, and reduce the normalisation of smoking for children and youth."

"They also reduce litter, water pollution and cleaning costs for local authorities and ratepayers."

It would also reduce temptation as quitting smokers would not be surrounded by smokers.

But Ciaran Duffy, manager of The Malthouse on Courtenay Pl, thought the idea seemed "a bit ridiculous".

With the bar surrounded by other dining and drinking establishments "people would have to go to the islands in the middle of the road" to smoke, he said.

He was sympathetic of the need to reduce smoking. Existing smoking areas accommodated smokers rather than ostracising them, he said.

Plum Cafe also has a large outside area, but co-owner David Fenwick largely supported the suggestion.

"The world is going smoke-free in public places, it is natural Wellington follow this evolution ... smoking adds no value or enjoyment to the dining experience of non-smoking patrons."

His outside area was near a playground, which people should not smoke near anyway.

A five metre non-smoking zone could have problems — for example, conflict when people tried to enforce the rule.

"Could this lead to smokers carrying measuring tapes?"

Smoker Richard Edwards said it would lead to less people going to bars in an already depressed hospitality industry. "Smokers will be forced down alleyways to smoke, like weed smokers were 10 years ago."

For many places, five metres from a cafe or bar was in the middle of the road.

Thomson, an associate professor, said smokers in the 25 to 30 age bracket were almost as likely to smoke now as the same age group 10 years ago.

It meant there were now more people taking up smoking in their 20s than previously.

While census data showed 83 per cent of Wellingtonians don't smoke, it is not clear who does smoke. Only 12 to 13 percent admitted to smoking in the census. Many did not answer.

The researchers observed 2600 people, only in outdoor areas in bars and cafes, and found 16 percent of people were seen smoking.

This was higher in the evenings, and highest in Cuba Street and Courtenay Place.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/9910666/Academic-wants-ban-on-smoking-in-public

[Calliope]

Crazy really - out-door diners don't seem to have any complaints about inhaling petrol and diesel fumes from passing traffic but "god forbid" a whiff of tobacco and everyone is a critic.
I like the quote "The world is going smoke-free in public places, it is natural Wellington follow this evolution ... smoking adds no value or enjoyment to the dining experience of non-smoking patrons."
Exactly the same arguement could be made about alcohol. Alcohol adds no value or enjoyment etc. In fact I would be tempted to say that I hate dining in a restaurant full of loud drunk patrons.

[donquixotenz]

#117   do they make these names up??? Factory worker Esekia Leafa poses with a handful of raw tobacco at Imperial Tobacco.
 — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

#117   do they make these names up??? Factory worker Esekia Leafa poses with a handful of raw tobacco at Imperial Tobacco.
 — Photo: Hagen Hopkins.

Some of those foreigners probably think your name sounds really weird to them.

In fact, I bet Maori thought European names were absolutely bizzare when they first heard them spoken in Aotearoa.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from the Miami Herald....

Florida jury slams R.J. Reynolds with $23.6 billion in damages

By JENNIFER KAY - Associated Press | Saturday, July 19, 2014


In this February 6th, 2008 photograph, a smokestack of
an old R.J. Reynolds Tobacco plant frames the Reynolds
American building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
A Florida jury has slammed R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company with $23.6 billion in punitive damages in
a lawsuit filed by Cynthia Robinson, the widow of a
longtime smoker who died of lung cancer in 1996.
The damages the jury awarded to Robinson on
Friday, July 18th, 2014, after a four-week trial
come in addition to $16.8 million in compensatory
damages. — Photo: Chuck Burton/Associated Press.

MIAMI — A Florida jury has slammed the nation's No.2 cigarette maker, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, with $23.6 billion (US) in punitive damages in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer in 1996.

The case is one of thousands filed in Florida after the state Supreme Court in 2006 tossed out a $145 billion class action verdict. That ruling also said smokers and their families need only prove addiction and that smoking caused their illnesses or deaths.

Last year, Florida's highest court re-approved that decision, which made it easier for sick smokers or their survivors to pursue lawsuits against tobacco companies without having to prove to the court again that Big Tobacco knowingly sold dangerous products and hid the hazards of cigarette smoking.

The damages a Pensacola jury awarded Friday to Cynthia Robinson after a four-week trial come in addition to $16.8 million in compensatory damages.

Robinson individually sued Reynolds in 2008 on behalf of her late husband, Michael Johnson Senior. Her attorneys said the punitive damages are the largest of any individual case stemming from the original class action lawsuit.

“The jury wanted to send a statement that tobacco cannot continue to lie to the American people and the American government about the addictiveness of and the deadly chemicals in their cigarettes,” said one of the woman's attorneys, Christopher Chestnut.

Reynolds' vice president and assistant general counsel, J. Jeffery Raborn, called the damages in Robinson's case “grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional law.”

“This verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness, and is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented,” Raborn said in a statement. “We plan to file post-trial motions with the trial court promptly, and are confident that the court will follow the law and not allow this runaway verdict to stand.”

The lawsuit's goal was to stop tobacco companies from targeting children and young people with their advertising, said Willie Gary, another attorney representing Robinson.

“If we don't get a dime, that's OK, if we can make a difference and save some lives,” Gary said.

The verdict comes the same week that Reynolds American Incorporated, which owns R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, announced it was purchasing Lorillard Tobacco Company, the country's No.3 cigarette maker, in a $25 billion deal. That would create a tobacco company second only in the U.S. to Marlboro maker Altria Group Incorporated, which owns Philip Morris USA Incorporated and is based in Richmond, Virginia.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2015 and likely will face regulatory scrutiny.

“I would rather see the tobacco industry punished to the tune of $24 billion than see them spend $25 billion to consolidate their power,” said Scott P. Schlesinger, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who has sued tobacco companies in Florida.

He's won damages ranging from a few million dollars up to $75 million, but he said Friday's verdict was inspiring.

“I have such admiration because they followed through. They let the jury speak without restricting them. We were afraid — we asked for smaller amounts,” said Schlesinger, who added, “If I get to the punishment phase (in another case), I'm going to be mighty tempted.”

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court turned away cigarette manufacturers' appeals of more than $70 million in court judgments to Florida smokers. Reynolds, Philip Morris and Lorillard had wanted the court to review cases in which smokers won large damage awards without having to prove that the companies sold a defective and dangerous product or hid the risks of smoking.

The Supreme Court refused to hear another of the companies' appeals last year, wanting the court to consider overturning a $2.5 million Tampa jury verdict in the death of a smoker.

Other Florida juries have hit tobacco companies with tens of millions of dollars in punitive damages in lawsuits stemming from the original class action lawsuit.

In August, a Fort Lauderdale jury awarded $37.5 million, including $22.5 million in punitive damages against Reynolds, to the family of a smoker who died at age 38 of lung cancer in 1995.

Attorneys for Reynolds said they would appeal, arguing that the woman knew the dangers of smoking because cigarettes had warning labels when she started. The attorney for the woman's family said teenagers like her were targeted by tobacco companies.

Some large jury verdicts awarding tens of millions of dollars in damages to relatives of smokers have been upheld by appeals courts.

In September, the 3rd District Court of Appeals affirmed $25 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages against Lorillard for Dorothy Alexander, whose husband died in 1996 of lung cancer. Lorillard, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, unsuccessfully argued the damages were excessive and raised a number of other claims.

The 1st District Court of Appeals upheld in June 2013 a $20 million punitive damage award to another smoker's widow, more than a year after reversing a $40.8 million award in the same case against Reynolds, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After the appeals court rejected the first award as excessive the award amount was recalculated. The tobacco company still objected.

Messages left Saturday for spokesmen for Lorillard and Altria were not immediately returned.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/19/4244451/fla-jury-slams-rj-reynolds-with.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Dominion Post....

Wellington Council considers cigarette butt ban
as it approves new anti-tobacco measures

By JOEL MAXWELL | 3:18PM - Wednesday, November 25, 2015


Wellington smokers could be affected by looming changes to the city's public smoking ban.
 — Photograph: Ross Giblin/Fairfax NZ.

WELLINGTON's smokers could be targeted through their cigarette butts in the fight against tobacco addiction.

On Wednesday, Wellington City Council approved anti-smoking measures that could include banning cigarette butts in smoke-free zones, with enforcement through fines possible.

Deputy Mayor Justin Lester pushed through the recommendation on the back of a council survey that gauged community views on smoke-free public areas.

The council voted to continue plans extending smoke-free areas around the city, but Lester was not convinced that using signs to nudge smokers out was working.

Now staff would look at the possibility of creating a bylaw that would support the smoke-free zones.

Lester said under law the council could not outright ban people from smoking in public, but there could be a way around that.

“One good way to do that is by preventing the littering of cigarette butts. If we outlaw that, and if we enforce that … then hopefully that will actively discourage people.”

These smoke-free zones could include Civic Square, and the Botanic Gardens — the bylaw would have the added benefit of discouraging a type of litter that “goes straight into the harbour”, he said.

If the council surveyed people on littering with cigarette butts there would probably be a stronger opposition to it than smoking itself, he said.

He would not rule out fines and said that “needed to be investigated” as part of the process.

Lester said he had no idea how much people might be fined if they were used to enforce the bylaw.

“We've asked officers to come back with that exact information … it might be a lighthanded approach, but certainly we will make people very aware that if they litter with cigarette butts there is potential for some form of penalty, or some form of warning.”

Under the Litter Act, councils can fine people up to $400 for littering.

Community, sport and recreation chair Paul Eagle said the process was in its early stages but if the staff came back in April saying it could be done, “then let's do it”.

However he said smoking was an addiction so the council needed to be balanced and tolerant in its approach.

“I don't want to set up the Wellington city smoking police force.”

The Cancer Society's Raewyn Sutton congratulated the council on its efforts to curb a habit that she said killed 5,000 people annually in New Zealand.

Once a smoker was addicted to tobacco “it is not a matter of personal choice for most people”, she said, and quitting for the average smoker took 14 attempts.

She said fining smokers for littering by dropping butts was done overseas and could be “one area we can go” if the council wanted to push harder against smoking.

Litter from butts on the ground, gutters and waterways was one of the main concerns of people who took part in the council survey.

The council already created smoke-free zones in playgrounds, skateparks, sport fields, Cable Car Lane and Midland Park, using signs, rather than fines.

The survey found that overall, 84 per cent of the 1,329 people surveyed — smokers and non-smokers alike — supported the city becoming more smoke-free.

Other findings showed the most popular suggestions for extending zones included the entrances to public buildings including libraries, swimming pools and recreation centres, bus stops, the Botanic Gardens and Otari-Wilton's Bush.

Lester said the council would not do anything “completely unreasonable” or contrary to the law.

“We just want to say that in areas that are deemed smoke-free let's do the best we can to discourage people from smoking.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Smokers on wrong side of public opinion in Wellington

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/74383520