Health experts say axing plan to block sales of tobacco products to next generation will cost thousands of lives
This headline SCREAMS ‘conservative’:
- bad for people
- bad for healthcare
- generate tax cuts … for the wealthy
@Amazinghorse that’s not really true. It won’t affect the bottom tax bracket. National have been pitching it as a tax cut for “middle income earners”.
I just went and played around with their tax calculator and low income earners get almost nothing compared to wealthier people.
From memory minimum wage earners get something like $25 per week, which I know isn’t much. Middle income earners ($120k+ combined) get $120 per fortnight back. People earning over $80k don’t get any additional cuts.
Their policy specifically states tax cuts for the bottom 3 brackets. I don’t know why the calculator isn’t showing any cuts for min wage.
So it’s conservative to refuse to ban tobacco? Do you agree with the general consensus that it’s also conservative to ban marijuana? How do you square those two attitudes, if so?
Tobacco causes mass amounts of death and warps entire societies and economies from killing so many older people. Also, massive tobacco companies break any law they want virtually and have for the entirety of their existence as massive corporations marketed cigarettes to kids.
So yes, I consider it conservative to refuse to ban tobacco and see no conflict with marijuana because marijuana doesn’t cause mass amounts of death and suffering (and before you say it does, give me proof).
What is concerning about spliff is the tendency to facilitate descent into abnormal mental states.
I enjoy good relations with a few healthcare professionals and the general consensus is, at this point, spliff has more potential benefits to explore than bad effects, so it makes sense to explore it, never overlooking the continuous use has been linked with some serious mental inbalances and even some physical syndromes.
Just a few days ago, here, on Lemmy, there was a lemming talking about a strange condition where continuous use over decades can trigger extremer pain and discomfort episodes, due to deposit of substances on fat tissue.
Tobacco is a proven killer, yes, but who knows what weird side effets we may be yet to discover connected with mary jane.
@quindraco in the New Zealand context yes it’s extremely conservative. This government is a lot more conservative than previous right-wing govts.
The “smokefree” policies were created by the Maori Party, whose constituency is disproportionately harmed by smoking.
If marijuana was killing thousands of Maori they would probably have wanted to but it isn’t.
It’s conservative to bend over and spread `em for the benefit of the owning class at the expense of everyone else - chiefly the workers those politicians claim to represent.
Others have pointed out the gaping differences in the health outcomes (including the burden that places on the healthcare system), addiction rates, etc.
