In 2010, around seven in 10 (72%) young people who were current smokers said they got their own cigarettes from friends and around five in 10 (52%) said someone else bought them for them. Three in 10 (32%) said they bought them from another person. The most common place to buy cigarettes from was from the dairy, with five in 10 (49%) saying they bought cigarettes from a dairy once (14%), two to three times (15%) or four times or more (20%).
Methodology
All respondents were asked during the past 30 days (one month), from which of these places did you get your own cigarettes? Respondents could give multiple responses from a list of sources shown in Figure 1. Responses for all sources (excluding ‘I did not get any cigarettes in the past 30 days’) were then compared by ethnicity, gender, parent/caregiver smoking status and family/wh nau smoking status (where appropriate) (p<.05).
Respondents were also asked which places did you buy cigarettes from in the past 30 days (one month)? The following commercial outlets were listed: dairy, liquor store/hotel, service station, supermarket, takeaway shop, vending machine, and ‘other’ shop. The percentage of respondents who answered ‘once’, ‘2-3 times’, ‘4 times or more’ and ‘never’ is presented in Figure 2 for each commercial outlet. Response options ‘once’ ‘2-3 times’ and ‘4 times or more’ were aggregated and compared by ethnicity, parent/ caregiver smoking status and gender. There were no significant differences (p<.05).
For both questions, responses are shown for current smokers (n=301).