Turia aims to make vehicles smoke free
So a couple of months ago, the price of a pack of roll-your-own cigarettes (or "rollies") went from around $20 to around $25 overnight. It was a very sad day for those of us on low enough incomes that we can't afford to smoke pre-rolled cigarettes (or "tailies") and, as ususal, it hurt most those very people it was trying to help, by taking money straight out of the pockets of the lowest earners. Why tailies shouldn't have been increased by anywhere near as much (a packet of cigarettes rose by 10%, loose tobacco by 24%) was never discussed, probably because there isn't a good reason for it.
The Association of Community Retailers (ACR) says that since the price rise, there have been more robberies of dairies and the like. The government says "bunk". Here is one of my main sticking points with the New Zealand media, and indeed most media outlets - this is a situation where they are arguing about FACTS, not opinions. That means one side is right and one side is wrong. If there have been more robberies, the ACR is right. If they haven't, the government is right. Deal Lazy Ass Fucking Journalists: please, for the love of god, follow this shit up! Ask the police about the robbery statistics and get an answer, don't just tell me that one person says "the sky is made of glass" and another person says "the sky is made of gas" - where there are empirical facts involved, tell me which one is mistaken and which correct!
Anyway. A Select Committee report has called for lots of changes to try and make "NZ Smoke-Free by 2025" - though they are at great pains to stress that by this they mean that no Kiwis will CHOOSE to smoke by 2025, not that tobacco products will be illegal. They want to do this by methods such as forcing cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging with graphic warnings, removing in-store cigarette displays, upping the tax (further), making cigarette companies pay for smoking cessation aids (gum, patches etc), lowering the amount of tobacco products imported into NZ, using PR and marketing to make smoking "uncool" etc etc.
AND possibly banning smoking in cars.
Now, I'm a smoker, as you can tell. Despite what you may think, I don't believe that cigarettes should be legal at all. I don't think that massive multi-national corporations should be able to make ridiculous profits by selling products which are physically addictive, have no positive benefits whatsoever, and are poisonous to people around the person smoking - giving it the widest death-reach of any drug (though secondhand P smoke can be a problem).
I love smoking in my car. I don't have children or drive children around, and I always ensure that the finding and lighting of a cigarette is easy enough to not impact on my driving - so I don't see the slightest reason why it should be illegal. If the authorities want to stop parents smoking with children in the car, it needs to be target. Maybe if a parent is caught smoking with children in the car, then the care of those children should be scrutinised. Maybe a fine (though, again, it is most likely to be those without the disposable income to pay a fine that smoke in the car with children) or some other punishment. Maybe they have to drive around with a bumper sticker on their car saying "I was caught smoking in the car with my kids", I don't know. What I do know is that every parent I know is dead possessive of their right to parent as they wish, and will bite your head off if you critique their decisions. To pass a blanket law across us all because some selfish parents don't care if they poison their children with second hand smoke is unfair overkill.
If you want me to quit smoking, Government types, then make cigarettes illegal. Don't just try and make it more expensive and annoying while gleefully spending all that yummy tax that cigarettes bring in and pretending that you want me to stop.
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