Opinion: Turia has absolutely smashed Big Tobacco ~ 3 News
Hmmmm....
Is the proposed law to make smokes only available in plain packages something that conservatives should be concerned about? I'm not sure ...
Smoking is legal, the product causes no moral harm to the individual, it doesn't impair mental capacity - but it can cause health problems. Except some people can smoke their entire lives and live to a ripe old age. Other product can also have a massive effect on health, and are probably just as addictive - such as sugar.
Personally, I'd prefer that my kids were addicted to cigarettes than to mind altering drugs. The irony here is that while the Government clamps down on smokes, there are repeated pushes for the relaxing of laws around marijuana, a far worse substance to take in to the body than smoking in my opinion, as it does cause mental impairment.
If smoking is so bad, why not just ban it outright? I would guess there are still too many voters who would revolt if that were to happen.
Why not force Big Tobacco to provide low nicotine smokes, or to progressively lower the nicotine content? As of a year ago, it was still impossible to buy low nicotine cigarettes in NZ, even though they had been found to have been very effective in helping people give up smoking.
My thinking is that this "victory" against "Big Tobacco" is a bit of being seen to be doing something. All noise and smoke, but no substance. And legislating plain packaging, which as a consumer, I abhore in any product as it's hard to tell what's what, might be setting some sort of puritanical precedent that the "Equality Crusaders" of our times might eventually use in the supermarket so that it's difficult to distinguish one brand from another. Far fetched, I don't know. Anything's possible in a world gone mad.
Hmmmm....
Is the proposed law to make smokes only available in plain packages something that conservatives should be concerned about? I'm not sure ...
Smoking is legal, the product causes no moral harm to the individual, it doesn't impair mental capacity - but it can cause health problems. Except some people can smoke their entire lives and live to a ripe old age. Other product can also have a massive effect on health, and are probably just as addictive - such as sugar.
Personally, I'd prefer that my kids were addicted to cigarettes than to mind altering drugs. The irony here is that while the Government clamps down on smokes, there are repeated pushes for the relaxing of laws around marijuana, a far worse substance to take in to the body than smoking in my opinion, as it does cause mental impairment.
If smoking is so bad, why not just ban it outright? I would guess there are still too many voters who would revolt if that were to happen.
Why not force Big Tobacco to provide low nicotine smokes, or to progressively lower the nicotine content? As of a year ago, it was still impossible to buy low nicotine cigarettes in NZ, even though they had been found to have been very effective in helping people give up smoking.
My thinking is that this "victory" against "Big Tobacco" is a bit of being seen to be doing something. All noise and smoke, but no substance. And legislating plain packaging, which as a consumer, I abhore in any product as it's hard to tell what's what, might be setting some sort of puritanical precedent that the "Equality Crusaders" of our times might eventually use in the supermarket so that it's difficult to distinguish one brand from another. Far fetched, I don't know. Anything's possible in a world gone mad.
It is an attack on capitalism.
ReplyDeleteHaving demonized tobacco they are ablr to prototype the techniques to be used against other successful companies (in the name of public health)
Fast food is next and to a small extent this is already happening. Ronald MacDonald will be banned eventually and so on.......
On the plus side, I envisage the welcome return of the cigarette case.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad was aged 65 when he died of smoking related lung cancer. That was 20 years ago now, as we've just passed the anniversary of his death just less than a week ago.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was his choice to smoke, despite my pleas as a child that he stop.
The more I think about this, the more I think that this measure will do absolutely nothing, except to make the politicians feel righteous.