Call for new approach to smoking problem 

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Radical new plans to control tobacco supply were presented to a Public Health Association conference in Dunedin on Friday.

The proposals included introducing a reducing quota for the amount of tobacco made available in New Zealand, and creating a tobacco supply agency to control the amount of tobacco being brought into the country.

Professor Richard Edwards, of the University of Otago, said it was not good enough that, after 50 years of knowing how harmful smoking was, 5000 New Zealanders died from it.

"By 20 years of age, almost a third of New Zealanders are regular smokers."

"This has changed little over the last decade. That means a new generation will grow up regarding smoking as an everyday behaviour."

"It means more taxpayer dollars spent in years to come treating cancers and heart disease due to smoking."

Prof Edwards called for the radical new approach to the "tobacco problem" - moving from reducing demand to attacking supply.

His team of reseachers were working on a model where neither business nor government exploited smokers.

"These proposals recognise that tobacco is a unique consumer product as it is highly addictive and kills half of its long-term users. It is very far from being a `normal' consumer product," he said.