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New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

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31–40 of 162 posts

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#31
post #9

I fully support this, but sadly there will be kids to whom possession and the smoking of cigarettes will be even more a sign of the utmost coolness. And, as I understand it there will be a time when a 35 year old can buy cigarettes but a 34 year old can't. That's going to be interesting.

You fully support criminal penalties for people who voluntarily consume tobacco? The repeated catastrophic failures of prohibition laws makes it impossible for me to support a move like this.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#32
post #9

I fully support this, but sadly there will be kids to whom possession and the smoking of cigarettes will be even more a sign of the utmost coolness. And, as I understand it there will be a time when a 35 year old can buy cigarettes but a 34 year old can't. That's going to be interesting.

Here’s the problem with tobacco. It becomes a public expense when the community has to pay the health bill. The same arguments that people who refuse COVID vaccines should be cut off from the community (jobs, commerce, etc) applies to tobacco. Tobacco costs lives and can inflict damage on those not personally using.

"Here’s the problem with tobacco."

Funny how that is the exact same problem as with exercise, diet, driving, and just generally existing in a society.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#33
post #17

The price increases (10% per year since 2011) have created a market for stolen and counterfeit cigarettes already. Creating a slow-roll prohibition will not stop people wanting to smoke tobacco products - in fact, previous evidence (e.g. alcohol and cannabis as things most people know about) shows that people are motivated to partake by the very idea of it being illicit. The product of US prohibition was the creation…

> the NZ experiment is more likely to make a few people extremely wealthy and not actually stop tobacco smoking

The trend is pretty good, and numbers are steadily falling. E-cigarettes have been vowing though. The below stats obviously pre-date the change announced.

https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/annual-update-key-res...

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#34
post #9

I fully support this, but sadly there will be kids to whom possession and the smoking of cigarettes will be even more a sign of the utmost coolness. And, as I understand it there will be a time when a 35 year old can buy cigarettes but a 34 year old can't. That's going to be interesting.

Here’s the problem with tobacco. It becomes a public expense when the community has to pay the health bill. The same arguments that people who refuse COVID vaccines should be cut off from the community (jobs, commerce, etc) applies to tobacco. Tobacco costs lives and can inflict damage on those not personally using.

So does heroin. Decriminalizing its use with treatment works while prohibition never does. You're barking up the wrong tree if you believe outlawing tobacco is a valid solution.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#35

The amount of support for drug prohibition in this thread really surprises me. Why shouldn’t an adult have the freedom to smoke and put themselves at high risk of lung cancer? If it’s “for their own good”, what makes the government the best entity to decide what’s good for one’s self? I hope lives are saved, but dang, it just hurts me a little bit to see personal liberty curbed. There’s no way this will result in an…

It’s weird right? Some times I look at interesting places like Qatar and Abu Dhabi and think, ‘I wouldn’t mind going there for a bit, see what it’s like’. Then I realize they banned alcohol, and the women are constricted, and so on.

Nice mountains New Zealand, wish I could have a smoke on one of them, you know, like Gandalf.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#36
post #9

I fully support this, but sadly there will be kids to whom possession and the smoking of cigarettes will be even more a sign of the utmost coolness. And, as I understand it there will be a time when a 35 year old can buy cigarettes but a 34 year old can't. That's going to be interesting.

Here’s the problem with tobacco. It becomes a public expense when the community has to pay the health bill. The same arguments that people who refuse COVID vaccines should be cut off from the community (jobs, commerce, etc) applies to tobacco. Tobacco costs lives and can inflict damage on those not personally using.

>The same arguments that people who refuse COVID vaccines should be cut off from the community (jobs, commerce, etc) applies to tobacco.

When was the last time an ER or ICU was closed to new patients because of lung cancer? The problem with COVID denialism isn't that they impose the usual sort of healthcare costs but that they produce correlated emergencies which strain the hospital beyond its usual operating capacity.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#37
post #17

The price increases (10% per year since 2011) have created a market for stolen and counterfeit cigarettes already. Creating a slow-roll prohibition will not stop people wanting to smoke tobacco products - in fact, previous evidence (e.g. alcohol and cannabis as things most people know about) shows that people are motivated to partake by the very idea of it being illicit. The product of US prohibition was the creation…

Good points. Like you said, kids drink underage and kids smoke underage. People buy heroin, etc. even though it is illegal. We'd be better off making these things legal for those 18+, tax them and use that to fund addiction recovery (we already have addicts but no one is paying for recovery).

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#38

The amount of support for drug prohibition in this thread really surprises me. Why shouldn’t an adult have the freedom to smoke and put themselves at high risk of lung cancer? If it’s “for their own good”, what makes the government the best entity to decide what’s good for one’s self? I hope lives are saved, but dang, it just hurts me a little bit to see personal liberty curbed. There’s no way this will result in an…

> If it’s “for their own good”, what makes the government the best entity to decide what’s good for one’s self?

FWIW, it's easier to justify when the government pays for expensive healthcare bills that ensue. Like making helmets and seatbelts mandatory, etc.

I know people who are mad at helmet-less cyclists because they will cost tax money if they have an accident: it isn't only their personal life they put on the line, they're risking other people's money. However small the final amount is on an individual level, it adds up. In the US, there are talks of making voluntarily unvaccinated patients fit their entire Covid-19 hospitalization bill.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#39
post #25
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully support the spirit of this legislation, because I'm a recovered nicotine addict and I wish I had never been granted access to nicotine when I first experimented with it. > Some people will never receive the access in the first place This simply isn't true. People will purchase nicotine from older people, while that's still possible, and then there will be a blossoming bootleg nicotine market. We've seen prohi…

I agree that tobacco access will drip down over to the younger generations, however, should a decent percentage of stores or users comply with this: 1. Market will shrink, making tobacco more difficult to obtain for current users and suppliers 2. Population will age, and it will become harder and harder for new generations to obtain access. 3. At some point, the policy might be considered excessive and abolished. How…

Your first two points have been proven comprehensively false by actual failed attempts at drug prohibition throughout modern history.

Re: New Zealand plans to make it illegal for kids to buy cigarettes – for life

#40
post #20
post #9

I fully support this, but sadly there will be kids to whom possession and the smoking of cigarettes will be even more a sign of the utmost coolness. And, as I understand it there will be a time when a 35 year old can buy cigarettes but a 34 year old can't. That's going to be interesting.

I can't support any legislation that so blatantly discriminates against a whole class of people. People should be treated equally in the eyes of the law.

And yet they aren’t in a large number of ways. Driving, drinking, voting, gun ownership, the ability to consent to various things, the ability to own some things.
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