Story: Māori smoking, alcohol and drugs – tūpeka, waipiro me te tarukino

From 2008 Māori Party co-leader Tariana Turia led a push for laws that would limit the availability of cigarettes and encourage people to quit smoking. In 2010 the Māori affairs select committee set up an inquiry into the tobacco industry in New Zealand. Committee chair Hone Harawira (a Māori Party MP) is shown here holding the diseased heart of Mohi Waihi. Waihi, who had a heart transplant after five heart attacks caused by smoking-related disease, brought his diseased heart to the inquiry. This recommended banning displays of cigarettes in shops, the plain packaging of tobacco products, limiting tobacco imports and requiring tobacco companies to pay for addiction treatment. By 2012 displays had been banned and plain packaging was being introduced.