THE NEW YORK TIMES:
The law, celebrated as a model for other countries, would have eventually made tobacco illegal.
New Zealand’s new prime minister, Christopher Luxon, leads a government that is the country’s most right-wing in a generation. | Marty Melville/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
New Zealand’s new right-wing government has said it will repeal a law that would have gradually banned all cigarette sales in the country over the course of several decades.
The law,
passed by a previous government led by
Jacinda Ardern, a prime minister who became an international liberal icon, took effect this year and was celebrated as a potential model that other countries might someday follow. It would have gradually introduced changes in retail cigarette sales and licensing over several years until tobacco could eventually no longer be legally sold in New Zealand.
By Jan. 1, 2027, the law would have made it illegal to sell tobacco products like cigarettes, to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009,
according to the government. The law would then have gradually raised the smoking age, year by year, until it covered the entire population.
But last week, the new government said in published agreements between the three coalition partners that it would repeal the law, without explaining why.
The incoming finance minister, Nicola Willis, later told Radio New Zealand that the Ardern government’s plans to restrict sales of tobacco and reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes could have led to a “massive black market.”
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Mike Ives and
Natasha Frost | Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Even though I am no longer a smoker, this is about the most welcome news I have heard in a long time. Why? Because it may signal the start of a return to common sense in matters related to smoking and the enjoyment of tobacco products. In recent years, one has been able to feel the ever-tightening grip of the health Nazis – they have been choking off all pleasures and enjoyment in life.
For very many people, a smoke is one of life’s daily pleasures. Indeed for some less fortunate people, it can be one of the few pleasures they can look forward to after a hard day’s work. What gives these do-gooding health Nazis the right to deny these people this simple pleasure?
If I were elected into high office, I would slash the taxes on cigarettes and tobacco asap. The enjoyment of a cigarette has been turned into a pleasure that only the privileged class can afford! In years gone by, a cigarette could be enjoyed by people in all classes and strata of society – from royalty right down to the coal miner, from the film star right down to the shop assistant.
The anti-smoking zealots go on and on about the carcinogens in cigarettes and tobacco. Yeh, yeh! We know all about it. So many of our products are actually carcinogenic, not just cigarettes. So are we going to ban those products, too? These health fanatics have harped on about the dangers of smoking for so long now, so how could we not know ALL about the dangers? What they are very sly and secretive about, though, is that there can be certain advantages to smoking cigarettes IN MODERATION. For example, smoking may have a protective effect against Parkinson’s disease. (Click here.) It may have a protective effect in Alzheimer’s disease, too. (Click here.) And that it helps ward off obesity is also well-known. In fact, in years gone by, many a lady would take up the smoking habit to stay slim! Being slim, in turn, helps ward off type-2 diabetes.
None of these facts mean that it is necessarily a good idea to smoke cigarettes. That is not what I am saying. But we need to get these things into perspective. Anyone reading a newspaper article on cigarette smoking would probably conclude that all cigarette smokers end up with lung cancer. But this is not the case. About 10% of HEAVY smokers contract lung cancer. Maybe up to 20%. (Click here.)
But it is interesting to note that in Japan, despite very high smoking rates, lung cancer rates are lower! This is known as the Japanese paradox. (Click here for further information.)
There are other health benefits too!
Do I advocate smoking? No! I certainly do not. But I certainly think that smoking a cigarette is preferable to snorting cocaine or being addicted to opioids, or any other substance. As always, the devil is in the dose.
But I am against the war that is being waged on smoking and smokers for political reasons, too. I am anti-Nanny State. I also am convinced that banning smoking in all public places and making all people paranoid about “second-hand smoke” leads to loneliness in society. People these days are afraid of their own shadows! Snowflakes all! – © Mark Alexander
Now Macron wants to
get in on the anti-smoking act! But will the French tolerate being bossed around by the state?
