Reducing demand is having little impact on tobacco use in New Zealand and controls on supply are also needed, the Public Health Association conference was told in Dunedin yesterday.
University of Otago chair of public health (Wellington campus) Prof Richard Edwards said instead of smoking being seen as risky behaviour and tobacco as a legally traded commodity, it should be viewed as a poison from which children needed protection.
Tobacco was still a huge problem, killing 5000 people a year in New Zealand, Prof Edwards said.
Census figures showed in the 10 years to 2006, the prevalence of regular smoking in 20 to 24-year-olds had only decreased by 2% and still stood at 30%.
"It's just not good enough. We shouldn't have 30% coming into the market as smokers 50 years after the harm has been known."
A tobacco-free vision with a focus on protecting the next generation from tobacco was needed.
Prof Edwards has been heading a research team exploring radical changes to tobacco supply which could include setting up a not-for-profit tobacco supply agency within a tobacco-free commission which would buy from the tobacco companies and then sell to licensed retailers.
Such an agency could ensure tobacco was sold in plain packs and that retailers must also stock smoking-cessation products.
In time, the number of retailers could be restricted.
This model would mean retailers would have no relationship with the tobacco industry, which would then lose its influence over how tobacco was marketed and distributed.
A change of focus of arguments was needed about where tobacco was sold.
Instead of asking whether it could be proved that point-of-sale exposure led to children starting smoking, the question should be, "Can you prove it doesn't?"
Another suggestion was that laws could be changed to make it easier to sue the tobacco industry and win.
Asked how the black market or people growing their own tobacco would be managed, Prof Edwards said tobacco smuggling was not an existing problem in New Zealand as in some countries.
Home-grown tobacco was unlikely to be on the scale of the tobacco industry and its effects would need to be monitored.
The final report, which will refine the policies and strategies, is expected to be completed late this year.
