What We Can Learn from New Zealand’s Pragmatic Approach to Vaping Policy

As we continue to discuss pathways toward a smoke-free America, it's worth examining the outcomes of real-world policy experiments happening right now. A recent study by researchers at the University of Queensland published in the journal Addiction provides compelling evidence for what many of us have long argued: a risk-proportionate regulatory framework that provides adults who smoke access to smokefree alternatives, coupled with accurate science-based information about those products versus cigarettes, can lead to faster declines in smoking rates.

Australia vs New Zealand - A Natural Experiment in Different Policy Approaches to Smoking

The study compared smoking and vaping rates from 2016-2023 across two neighboring countries, Australia and New Zealand, with similar demographics and policy profiles around combustible tobacco, but very different approaches to regulating nicotine vapor products.

New Zealand has embraced balanced regulation that allows adult consumers to purchase vaping products from licensed retailers, while implementing policies to remove devices like disposables and products with youth-appealing imagery. The country is clear on its stance that vaping can be an effective tool to help adult smokers make the switch from combustible cigarettes, dedicating a government website to providing reliable facts and resources about vaping’s role in making cigarettes obsolete.

Australia’s vaping policy, by contrast, is one of the most restrictive in the world, based on a prescription-only model that treats e-vapor products akin to controlled substances. Beginning in late 2024, restrictions were lightened slightly in an effort to counter a black market that erupted. Still the policy continues to require prescriptions and/or limited over-the-counter pharmacy purchases only and generally sends a chilling message to adults who smoke in regard to vapor products as an alternative to combustibles.

What the Research Shows

The results of the comparative study are striking, and they should inform the policy discussion in the United States and wherever governments are considering how to balance adult access to less harmful alternatives and evidence-based messaging with responsible rules to prevent youth use.

1. Smoking declined twice as fast in New Zealand. Between 2016 and 2023, New Zealand's adult daily smoking rate plummeted from 14.5% to 6.8% – a 10% annual decline. Australia's rate fell by just half of that over the same time period with 8.3% of adults smoking daily in 2023.

2. Vaping rates mirror smoking declines. By 2023, 9.7% of New Zealand adults reported daily use of e-vapor products, compared to only 3.5% of Australian adults – reflecting the differing accessibility of these products as alternatives to combustible cigarettes.

3. Smoking rates for young adults declined in both countries, and lower socioeconomic groups in New Zealand benefited. In both countries, smoking declined the most among younger adults, which also reflect higher vaping rates among that population. The lower socioeconomic and indigenous populations in New Zealand - communities often at the highest risk for smoking and smoking-related disease - saw more rapid declines in smoking rates following implementation of New Zealand’s vaping policies, suggesting access to alternatives played a role.

4. Youth vaping rates in New Zealand are higher than Australia but have started to decline since regulations were introduced. The authors note that most of the rise in youth vaping occurred prior to the 2021 enactment of New Zealand’s vaping policies and, since regulation went into effect, daily vaping among youth has decreased from 10.1% in 2022 to 8.7% in 2024. The authors rightly note that the rise in youth vaping raises important public health questions and underlines the importance of balanced regulation, including “restricting the sale of vaping products to licensed retail outlets; strict age verification and use of closed-circuit television at point-of-sale; harsh penalties including the loss of licence for underage sales; restricted advertising and marketing to adolescents; restrictions on disposables; and banning flavour names, images and packaging, which appeal to young people.”

5. Thriving black market in Australia. Restrictive policies in Australia have “helped create a thriving and increasingly violent” black market. As one co-author noted, more than 90% of vaping products sold in the country are unauthorized and sold outside of the prescription and pharmacy-only restrictions.¹

Lessons for US Policy

The implications for the United States could not be clearer. Effective regulations to protect against youth adoption of alternative nicotine products are essential, but if we aim to end cigarette smoking, policies must also be balanced in a way that provides for access to an array of potentially less harmful alternatives for adult smokers.

Obviously, the US has not gone so far as to make e-vapor products prescription-only, as they did in Australia. Yet it is also fair to say that the US government has been generally restrictive in its approach to authorizing vapor products and has sent mixed messages to adult smokers about the benefit of transitioning from combustibles to vapor alternatives.

Compared with Australia, New Zealand’s model demonstrates the potential benefits of a balanced approach in terms of accelerating smoking reductions. The country’s adoption of science- and evidence-based messaging campaigns encouraging smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives is working, and the contrast with Australia is stark. As lead researcher, University of Queensland Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall adeptly points out, this study highlights the three pronged potential for increasing access to nicotine vaping products to “improve public health, reduce social inequalities and diminish the illicit vaping market.”²

This study provides a roadmap for what common sense can look like in tobacco policy: a regulated market for adult smokers seeking alternatives, accurate and evidence-based information about relative risk, and focused enforcement against both youth access and illegal products. The message here is clear and compelling – if we want to make cigarettes obsolete, we need to follow the roadmap of those countries who are on their way toward achieving that goal.

1. https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2025/02/less-restrictive-vaping-laws-linked-faster-smoking-decline

2. Ibid