It is said that Councils have a responsibility to look after the community and take care of that community’s needs. So does that also mean telling people where they can and cannot drink, smoke or do drugs?

Central government wants councils to dictate where the community can buy legal highs, drink and smoke. So yes, it is the Council’s responsibility to set these areas up. In fact the WDC has done just that by creating areas in which legal highs can be sold. It’s also enforcing a one-way door policy for drinking.

The public have got together in Whangarei and pressured the Council to make legal highs hard for people – that’s a positive example of social engineering.  Also they have pressured the Council in relation to where people can drink. Now drinking within the CBD can only be done inside licensed premises within certain hours. That’s another pretty beneficial social curb.

Government and councils have now turned their eye on smoking.  It began when a smokefree policy for Whangarei’s playgrounds and reserves was introduced in July 2010. A ban on cigarettes in bus stops followed in December 2013 and nationally, the government is aiming for a Smokefree New Zealand by 2025, meaning government wants <5% of the population smoking.

There are proven facts showing that smoking kills not only the individual, it also kills the people around them. Smoking-related illnesses puts a huge cost on central government, just like drink driving accidents and kids overdosing on drugs. So, the 2025 plan is understandable – although forcing people to change their behaviour is controversial.

Our friends over the ditch have different smoking policies for different states. As an example, one Australian policy is that you cannot smoke within 4 metres of a building entrance. Some Californian municipalities have banned smoking within multi-unit housing, and there’s been a bill there calling for a ban on smoking in one’s own home. What should Whangarei do? Our hospitals are smokefree, yet they allow people to smoke outside the doors; our stadiums and public parks are smoke free, yet they allow people to smoke on the footpath metres away.

I’m personally not a smoker – in fact I’m an asthmatic, which means smoking for me is really bad.  However, I can understand why people are upset on both sides of the fence. Smoking causes harm, but it’s still a person’s right. How many rights should we let council and government take from us?