New Zealand - you gotta be this old to have rights.

[emjay]

It appears how much benefit and idea can bring to humanity is almost always directly proportional to how Stridently people like OLB will trout out spurious right arguments to oppose it and Cast aspersions upon it

Whatever Carrie Nation...
.

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Just remember - alcohol is next!

It costs New Zealanders far more than the taxes it brings in.... Perhaps if they 10 fold increase taxes on it...

https://www.actionpoint.org.nz/cost-of-a...s%2C%20etc.

I personally doubt very much that would be the case, because there is absolutely no positive case to be made for tobacco (only the rationalisations of an existing smoker, which is not the same thing as reasons to start), whereas something like alcohol at least is not harmful and/or has benefits in moderation... there is no 'in moderation' equivalent for smoking... speaking as an ex-smoker, who as it was smoked for twenty years too long. Should things like this, that are for whatever reason already legal, remain legal and protected forever after, long after they've been repeated shown by science to be incredibly dangerous? I'm glad to see this move happening... or the very least very curious to see how it pans out... to make something illegal that never should have been made legal in the first place, but when it did so was because no one knew any better... but now we do.

Granted if I still smoked, and if I lived in NZ I'd probably be very pissed off - I don't know how it's going to effect existing smokers, and how they will continue to get their supply, assuming they will try to do so, because one thing you can't do is force people to quit; that decision has to come from within - but in theory the thought of a whole generation of young people prevented from taking up the habit before they're old enough to make an informed/un-peer-pressured decision... which let's face it, should realistically always land on a solid 'No!' if it is indeed a mature and unpressured decision... is very appealing. Especially since IMO that's the main/target demographic of the tobacco industry (I started at 15 and for all the wrong reasons... which I think they bank on)... take away that constant influx of young blood and the business becomes a lot less sustainable beyond the current generations, because I really can't see that many people choosing to start as a reasoned decision in adulthood.

But failing this sort of idea, I'd at least like to see the smoking age raised significantly, anywhere that's willing, to deal with that issue of maturity. In the UK I started smoking at 15 as I said, when the age to buy tobacco was 16. Since then it has been raised to 18... which is a good thing... but could still be much better. Also all the packaging has changed to bland, warning-ridden containers, so it's no longer advertised or branded so to speak, as well as constant increases in tax on them, which is also good for making it less attractive... so overall I'm pretty happy with the UK's approach to smoking, but I still think they could go further. I'd personally like to see a smoking age of maybe 25 or so... allowing for people to fully mature before making that decision (because let's face it, an 18 year old may be able to vote, but they're still pretty susceptible to things like peer-pressure), as well as making it a lot harder for young people to get away with buying tobacco without ID because they look older.