Smokefree Coalition presenting to Health Select Committee

MEDIA RELEASE
3 February 2010

Guild welcomes Smokefree Coalition presenting to Health Select Committee

The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (the Guild) welcomes the Smokefree Coalition today presenting to the Health Select Committee. As a member of the Smokefree Coalition, the Guild supports their approach to reducing smoking rates and the intent of the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill. The Coalition will present to the Health Select Committee today at 11.20am.

The Guild is passionate about supporting members so they can help their patients become smoke-free. The Guild supports the Māori Affairs Select Committee’s Report recommendation allowing community pharmacists to be Quitcard providers and PHARMAC being encouraged to subsidise a wider range of effective cessation medicines.

“Community pharmacists are ideally positioned to provide access to Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and other smoking cessation programmes,” says Annabel Young, Guild Chief Executive. “As well as being the medicines experts, they can provide the proper counselling support for patients.

“In our Submission to the Health Select Committee, we noted that although the Guild supports the Bill’s proposals to restrict tobacco retail displays, we are disappointed that it fails to reflect important aspects of the Report into smoking,” says Annabel. Further, in doing so, important opportunities are missed with respect to the statement that the proposed legislation “aims, over time, to... help smokers to quit”.

According to the Māori Affairs Select Committee’s Report, the use of NRT during a quit attempt doubles the chance that a smoker will quit. NRT reduces nicotine withdrawal symptoms which can include cravings for nicotine, irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, sleep disturbances, decreased heart rate, increased appetite and weight gain. These symptoms all make quitting difficult.

The Report states that smoking makes tobacco New Zealand’s most dangerous drug and possibly it’s most addictive. “We urge the Government to adopt the Report’s recommendation to halve tobacco consumption and smoking prevalence by 2015, followed by making New Zealand a smoke-free nation by 2025,” says Ian Johnson, Guild President and Auckland pharmacist.

ENDS

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