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.)
