Reuters: New Zealand bans future generations from buying tobacco under new laws

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

Future generations of New Zealanders will be banned from purchasing tobacco as part of a package of new anti-smoking laws that passed parliament on Tuesday and are among the most strict in the world. 

 

The suite of new laws include bans on selling tobacco to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, punishable by fines up to NZ$150,000 ($95,910). The ban will remain in place for a person's whole life. 

 

The legislation will also reduce the amount of nicotine allowed in smoked tobacco products and cut the number of retailers able to sell tobacco by 90%.

Quote

Already boasting one of the lowest adult smoking rates among the 38 countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, New Zealand is further tightening anti-smoking laws as part of a government push to make the country "smokefree" by 2025. 

 

Only Bhutan, which banned cigarette sales in 2010, will have stricter anti-smoking laws. 

 

The number of adult New Zealanders smoking fell by half over the past decade to 8%, with 56,000 quitting in the past year. OECD data shows 25% of French adults smoked in 2021.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-bans-future-generations-buying-tobacco-under-new-laws-2022-12-13/

[TheGreatBuzz]

I quit smoking daily about a month ago.  I have a Juul vape on the lowest setting to help me through the days.  We both do still smoke when we go out drinking sometimes but that is a lot cheaper.  It was $10 a pack that finally broke me.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Renegade7]

This would've included hookas, blunt wraps, and cigars?

 

Really want to get my attention versus looking for it, ban the additives in them, imo.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I almost do a double take when I see someone smoking a cigarette now.  

[Captain Wiggles]

I see smokers daily. Price of living on Tobacco Road. 🤣

 

Cigars becoming popular again is much worse. Tho tobacco products in general are disgustingly revolting. 

[PleaseBlitz]

I don't know anything about New Zealand's healthcare system, but this is probably going to add billions of dollars in healthcare costs over the next decade. 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

1 hour ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

I almost do a double take when I see someone smoking a cigarette now.  

 

This is me as well...I pretty much never see anyone smoking anywhere, hell even in movies lol...

[Corcaigh]

38 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

I don't know anything about New Zealand's healthcare system, but this is probably going to add billions of dollars in healthcare costs over the next decade. 

Will also massively increase the cost of state pensions/social security.

 

Smokers are the greatest financial patriots. They pay very high taxes on their habit and then they die before benefiting from pensions and costly elderly healthcare coverage.

[PleaseBlitz]

34 minutes ago, Corcaigh said:

Will also massively increase the cost of state pensions/social security.

 

Smokers are the greatest financial patriots. They pay very high taxes on their habit and then they die before benefiting from pensions and costly elderly healthcare coverage.

 

I dunno, I'd like to see some data on this.  I'm sure it cuts down on pensions and SS (although I believe most pension plans have a provision where some of the money goes to beneficiaries in cases of premature death), but I also know from personal experience* that dying from cancer (or being successfully treated multiple times) is extraordinarily expensive regardless of which age it happens, and I don't think the taxes on cigarettes come anywhere close to covering it.   Again, open to being shown otherwise.  

 

*To be absolutely clear, I have not personally died from cancer. /knocks on wood. 

 

 

[China]

1 hour ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

*To be absolutely clear, I have not personally died from cancer. /knocks on wood. 

 

 

 

You sure you're not dead?  Reminds me of that old joke:

 

Quote

An attorney, cross-examining the local coroner, queried, "Before you signed the death certificate had you taken the man's pulse?"

"No," the coroner replied.

"Well, then, did you listen for a heart beat?"

The coroner answered, "No."

"Did you check for respiration? Breathing?", asked the attorney.

Again the coroner replied, "No."

"Ah," the attorney said, "So when you signed the death certificate you had not taken any steps to make sure the man was dead, had you?"

The coroner rolled his eyes, and shot back "Counselor, at the time I signed the death certificate the man's brain was sitting in a jar on my desk. But I can see your point. For all I know he could be out there practicing law somewhere."

 

[Corcaigh]

4 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

I dunno, I'd like to see some data on this.  I'm sure it cuts down on pensions and SS (although I believe most pension plans have a provision where some of the money goes to beneficiaries in cases of premature death), but I also know from personal experience* that dying from cancer (or being successfully treated multiple times) is extraordinarily expensive regardless of which age it happens, and I don't think the taxes on cigarettes come anywhere close to covering it.   Again, open to being shown otherwise.  

 

 

It was partly said as dark humor but I don’t think there is a clear consensus.

 

Social security and other pensions are significantly lower as benefits passed onto a spouse are much lower than a couple would receive. And while cancer treatment is very expensive, a much older population has many many years longer in which to incur treatment for other ailments including other forms of cancer which are very costly. Here’s a very old article from the WaPo by Malcolm Gladwell, but there are others:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/02/27/not-smoking-could-be-hazardous-to-pension-system/0c2151ba-c38a-400d-aab5-bd45a5ba80ec/

 

And the BBC political comedy series even had a sketch on the topic:

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Corcaigh

[PleaseBlitz]

I think it was Mayor Bloomberg that said something to the effect of “I want to raise cigarette taxes so high they result in zero revenue.”

[tshile]

On 12/13/2022 at 11:57 AM, TheGreatBuzz said:

I quit smoking daily about a month ago.  I have a Juul vape on the lowest setting to help me through the days.  We both do still smoke when we go out drinking sometimes but that is a lot cheaper.  It was $10 a pack that finally broke me.

im on chantix. Works great. Some people are not fond of the side effects they have. But works great for me. 
 

tobacco is a stupid product. Addiction is different for different people and for me nicotine is something i can’t quit even thought im fully aware of how stupid tobacco is. 

32 minutes ago, Corcaigh said:

And while cancer treatment is very expensive, a much older population has many many years longer in which to incur treatment for other ailments including other forms of cancer which are very costly. Here’s a very old article from the WaPo by Malcolm Gladwell, but there are others:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/02/27/not-smoking-could-be-hazardous-to-pension-system/0c2151ba-c38a-400d-aab5-bd45a5ba80ec/

I also wanted to add this point. 
 

Not that I’m willing to die in a mountain for this, nor am I prepared to try, but seems to me that smokers helped by dying earlier 😂 

[Renegade7]

Me admitting I would smoke menthols again if they weren't so fn bad for me is a sign of how truly addictive nicotine really is.  Once a smoker always a smoker as my Mom would say, it's more never smoking again then really quiting if you used to smoke a lot.

 

Smoked 10 years, at one point pack a day, now at least 10 years without them.  I'd say cigarettes saved my life by preventing me to have the courage to try any other drug nearly addictive as that was, though, took a year to finally quit.

 

I do not believe hookahs should be banned, nor cigars, or anything used to roll blunts made out of tobacco.  Banning menthol cigarettes but not the extra chemicals they put in Newport 100s is a slap in the gd face. Stop pretending to save my life.