Stubbing out a 12-year habit

Alex Duncan has been cutting back his smoking in advance of the smoking law coming into effect at midnight. Picture / Dean Purcell

The next time Alex Duncan walks into a bar, the temptation that once wafted around the room will be gone.

After many attempts to quit a 12-year habit, the 30-year-old believes the new smokefree laws, which ban smoking indoors, could be his salvation.

"You come to the pub and there's something about having a pint and a cigarette. People are lighting up around you and it just triggers it," he said.

"I have managed to give up for a few weeks but then the temptation is to have one.

"If you have that one it escalates back to the point where you are smoking again."

Mr Duncan started smoking when he was 18 "because of peer pressure"and spends up to $50 a week on cigarettes - most of those smoked in the evening at home or in the pub.

In the lead-up to the new law, which starts at midnight, he has been cutting back - he's down to 10 cigarettes an evening - and from Friday he is confident there will be no more.

For years he described himself as a social smoker and, like many of his friends, believed he could give up whenever he wanted. The reality has not been as easy.

"I think I'm addicted and I don't like the idea of being an addict, of something having control of me."

Mr Duncan, an advertising account manager, said he wanted to quit for his health and to save money. The fact his grandfather - a smoker most of his life - died about three years ago of lung cancer had been an incentive.

"After a week I will feel so much better. I will be able to taste food and my sense of smell comes back. I'll also be able to sleep a lot easier.

"There are so many things it screws up."

The Auckland man is not the only smoker who sees the new law as the motivation to finally give up.

A spokeswoman for Quitline said the service had received lots of calls from smokers supportive of the new legislation. Last week it received 700 calls - double the number for the same time last year.

She attributed that to publicity around the new law and smokers viewing it as a reason for giving up.

"Traditionally we find Christmas one of our slowest times, with people going on holiday and wanting to have a break.

"They're not thinking about quitting. Normally we get an influx after the New Year."

Sales of Nicorette, a nicotine replacement therapy sold in a variety of forms including gum and patches, have jumped more than 20 per cent in the last six months.

Nicorette spokesman Peter Baltus said while some of the growth was the result of an advertising campaign and a new product called Microtab, he believed much of it was because smokers were using the "historic health milestone" to try to take up the challenge to quit.