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New Zealand scraps world-first smoking ‘generation ban’ to fund tax cuts (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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Health experts say axing plan to block sales of tobacco products to next generation will cost thousands of lives

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[–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

Without taking away from your point, I'll point out that you're comparing hypothetical isolated cases of pointless and fruitless self-harm to a supposed reduction in tobacco harm generally, which is one of the leading causes of premature death globally, and is also fully preventable (while the actions of irrational persons is not generally preventable). I think the side you land on has more to do with one's politics generally than the actual issue. Does "do no harm" take priority if the consequence is "generally more death"?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    No I literally think they should ban them instead of playing stupid games like taking most of the nicotine out and hoping people make the healthier decision vs the more destructive one of smoking more.

    Whether nicotine reduction would even lead to a net reduction in harm is the actual hypothetical here, and there are reasons to believe it wouldn't, which is all I'm pointing out. It just sounds like a shitty policy, regardless of ideology.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    What are those reasons? It sounds like you're trying to say that tobacco as a cultivated plant for smoking propagating across the world over the past few centuries is because it was trendy.

    Without getting into my personal involvement and anecdotes, 'introduce RNT products and hope for the best' is far from an accurate characterisation of NZ Labour's Smokefree 2025 Action Plan.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I'm not arguing nicotine isn't addictive. It's the whole basis of why there's good reason to believe people woule just smoke more to get their fix, and all the harm that comes with the added tar consumption that would involve.

    It also wouldn't be the first time a political party proposed a poorly thought out policy that sounds good on paper but doesn't help in practice. If there is some accompanying successful medical study that motivated such a policy then I can be convinced otherwise, but until then let's stop pretending these doubts are not obvious and reasonable.

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