Selling Tobacco to minors.

Alcohol and gambling have full support of the law and maximum penalty fines are forced if any of the ‘age’ restricted products are sold to minors under 18 years old. These penalty fines are: $10,000 for alcohol and $5,000 for gambling. Unfortunately it seems that the legality of selling tobacco to minors have taken a back seat and only imposed a penalty fine of $2,000, this is extremely light handed considering the impact that tobacco-cigarette smoking causes. Tobacco smoking in New Zealand accounts to 23% of all cancer deaths and 16% of deaths of all causes. These statistics clearly indicate the impact of tobacco smoking and the primary factor in the leading cause of premature death. It clearly indicates that business owners pay a small price and profit obscures their morality on our justice system, society and importantly our most vulnerable our ‘youth’ population.