Casey Costello's order to halve the tax is "something that tobacco companies would have been keen to see," an expert says.

Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

HTP’s may help stop smoking, or just as likely (in my opinion) increase the rate of people starting.

Seems like a win for the tobacco industry either way.

  • liv
    9·
    2 months ago

    Really feels like the past is coming back in zombie form.

    • absGeekNZOPEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      I guess health care costs from smoking don’t matter, they are for future governments to worry about.

      • liv
        5·
        2 months ago

        It just sort of feels so backward.

        Which means even when we vote them out again it’s still going to feel retro for ages because the headlines will all be about stopping smoking making drivers have seatbelts or giving women the vote (depending on how long we have them in for).

        • absGeekNZOPEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          I feel that next election there needs to be a graph that shows smoking rate and projected health care costs associated with smoking.

          It would show the declining rate of smoking up to 2024, and smoking costs peaking sometime in the near future. Then as rates increase the projected increase in costs.

          • liv
            3·
            2 months ago

            I’d love to see graphs of the true cost of various bad decisions.

            The housing stock, child respiratoey disease and the long time burden on the health system is another one, but it would be much harder to do.