Ok. Here goes. I voted for this group and while I am not a fan of the repeal of the tobacco legislation, I am not completely against it either.
Here are the reasons:
1. I don’t believe the “generational” ban of not selling tobacco products to people born after 2009 was ever going to stop smoking for good, for exactly the same reasons that banning weed doesn’t stop people smoking weed either.
2. Continuing the legalised selling of nicotine products has the same “de-powering the gangs” merits as legalising marijuana. If you are pro legalising weed, then you should also be pro the continued sale of nicotine to people born after 2009.
3. Dairies, petrol stations etc depend on the sale of nicotine products. If you are anti-big business, and tell people you love supporting small retailers, then the repeal of this legislation should sit well with you. The current legislation limits sales to only large, approved retailers.
So yeah. Great if smoking went away and we could all reap the benefits of a health system that isn’t strained. Is that realistic?
The Marijuana argument and tobacco are not remotely comparable.
Smoking rates are at their lowest ever in NZ thanks to the regulation and prohibitive pricing.
Marijuana use is growing.
You can enjoy daily Marijuana use with one session a day, and that is enough for most people, apart from heavy users, cigarettes are a habit that needs top ups every few minutes / hours which clearly makes it very insidious, since seeing people smoking in public is a great trigger for those trying not to smoke to fail.
It also influences young people, seeing smoking everywhere, which is why Big Tobacco spent billions on advertising and smoking in movies, painting Ferrari's Marlborough Red etc.
As to your last point about is it realistic to have better health care outcomes....ahh well we are....we live in that world right now...or at least we did until these idiots came along and decided to sell their souls to Satan and put at risk the current status of all time lowest smoking rates in this countries history.
As for Shops needing the business, that is just insane, if you cannot sustain a business without selling legalized poisonous toxins then you shouldn't be in business.
A pack a day smoker is paying three hundred and fifty a week to smoke on Tailor mades, you can buy an ounce of bush weed, and two thirds of an ounce of skunk for that.