Originally published at: Addicted to cigarette taxes, New Zealand scraps plans to restrict sales | Boing Boing
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I’m sure absolutely none of the people in office have any friends in tobacco or tobacco accessories.
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it makes a little money now and they don’t really care if it costs more in the long term.
All politicians - but especially the right - do this all the time and have done forever. The point of party politics is to win elections and retain power, full stop (mostly to prevent the other side from doing things they and their pals may not like), not to do things with that power that serve the public interests. The left at least will sometimes publicly admit there are real public interests. The right only ever state them as euphemisms for their own interests and those of their pals.
(Nye Bevan was right: “Toryism is just organised spivvery”)
It sounds from other reportage that the sort of people New Zealand voted into office would see unequal health outcomes as a bonus.
See also the past week or two’s evidence at the UK Covid enquiry.
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This is the right decision.
The “creeping prohibition” policy of the previous government was well intentioned, but would just have handed the nicotine market over to organised crime. Prohibition just doesn’t work, as has been shown by every time it has been tried. A combination of tax, regulation and less harmful substitutes is already suppressing smoking to lower levels than ever. We need to let that work.
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I’m sure that this administration wouldn’t dream of finding other means to save money on healthcare for some people whose lungs are no longer vigorous enough for the labor market… Just a few pious invocations of ‘personal responsibility’ here; some insinuations about the sort of people who are driving up costs for real New Zealanders there…
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It’s not only short-term financial thinking and the possibility of more poor people and minorities dying that’s driving this decision. There’s also a matter of gratitude.
The tobacco industry has given so much to the right-wing parties of the West, who couldn’t get majorities in a fair election now without the playbook of sleazy propaganda devices developed to sell cancer sticks. It’s only fair that they reward it when given the chance.
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As @Purplecat mentioned, you’ve missed the most important part, namely scrapping the automatically rising age limit that would have banned anyone born after January 2009 from buying cigarettes.
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Heck, it’s how leaders in eastern european countries stay in power. When things get shitty, many of these autocrats will intentionally bring down the cost of booze and smokes. A bit of tobacco to make your crappy day a little more tolerable and drunk people can’t plan coups and revolts all that effectively. Stalin did this and Gorbachev tried to do something about the alcoholism in his country but it became one of the reasons (not one of the main ones but it certainly didn’t hurt) for the fall of the USSR.
Guess why american conservatives are panicking over young people drinking less these days?
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I’m keen to highlight other elements of the law that aren’t dumb as shit.
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Be that as it may, it was the most important part of the former administration’s plan, and the British government is or was planning a similar measure.
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Putting aside discussion of whether the tobacco legislation was government overreach, that the cigarette tax revenue goes to tax cuts and program cuts rather than saving lives via health care expenditure is pure evil.
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I wonder if that would have worked (or will if the UK does it), or if the taboo just makes it more appealing and create a black market for it? (Or are kids just all vaping now?)
It certainly would turn the Snooker Commentary world upside down.
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The war on drugs (even nicotine) is bad, m’kay?
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Yeah, we should go back to where people smoked in all places, because the world was so much more pleasant then… smelled so much better… /s
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I mean it’s not like the National party’s campaign chair and new number 7 in the cabinet is an ex Phillip Morris spokesman
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I’d agree if the current policy was an outright ban but it isn’t, it’s graduated slowly in combination with a restriction in supply channels and an elimination of marketing and advertising in order to avoid that outcome. The goal is to progressively reduce demand rather than cutting off supply and handing the demand to the black market.
I’m also a bit weirded out by seeing that argument coming for the National party and it’s supporters with no sense of irony 3 years after they fought against cannabis legalization.
Luxon’s other argument that fewer outlets selling tobacco would be a bigger target for criminals including ram-raiders ignores the fact that dairies (convenience stores) already are and it would be easier to secure fewer sites properly.
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… so is this where centrists are supposed to propose raising the old-enough-to-buy-tobacco age by six months every year 
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