As nonsmoker I'm strongly against this, when did alcohol prohibition, war on drugs or their COVID restrictions worked? You will just anger people and it seems completely unnecessary considering there is steady decline in smokers and there are surely more dangerous issues to deal with, in case of NZ it would be pandemic of obesity.
In Australia, you can't advertise cigarettes, and cigarettes have to be sold in faded green packaging (without logos etc.) with only health warnings. You can only get cigarettes if you know which brands to ask for.
That has prevented some people taking up smoking. I think it's fair.
It can work in a country like New Zealand that has -very- tight controls and people will readily report others for breaking the law. I think it will greatly reduce smoking. I don't like it, personally, but it absolutely can work like gun laws that are applied relentlessly (see australia and england vs US gun deaths)
Assisted suicide is legal in New Zealand. What if I want to smoke myself to death? Absolutism from the state is so noxious. Make cigarettes prohibitively expensive and difficult to acquire sure. But complete prohibition is an infringement on our natural right to decide what to consume.
You wanna smoke yourself to death? Do it at home. Most people want to smoke themselves to death in the open, around other people though. It's nobody's right to pollute our air for the sake of their bad habits, thus regulations.
First, aren’t smokers paying for it through the high taxation of cigarettes?
Second, wouldn’t this argument also apply to people that drink themselves to death? Or eat themselves to obesity? Or snack on sugar to diabetes? Should we not cover someone’s medical bills if they attempt suicide or drive at high speeds and crash?
I’m saying this as a non-smokers who hates the smell of cigarettes.
everybody dies one day....and most...use hospitals and health care....so the argument is just a waste of time imo - and frankly....the air is connected across the globe...so that argument is kinda weak too ..
What if you want to blow yourself up with a hand grenade? Not allowed. Or crash a light plane into a building? Not allowed either. Or infect yourself with smallpox? Not allowed.
The absolutism here doesn't sit with the NZ government.
Politicians generally reflect their societies' attitudes. (In the US in the past, too, before the Citizen's United decision.)
