Tobacco tax racist towards Maori?

[The End]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11647467

Dr Glover said anti-smoking policies such as the higher taxes, and recent decisions by Wellington and Hutt councils to ban smoking in open public spaces, were now effectively a form of discrimination.

"It is now illegal to discriminate against people on the grounds of ethnicity, age, mental illness or sexuality, but there is this handy tool now which is smoking, which [is] concentrated with higher prevalence amongst the 'undesirables'.

"So people are now, I believe, using smoking as a legitimate and legal way to ... discriminate against people."

She said Maori, and especially Maori women, had the highest smoking rates "because of the cumulative stress of the environment".

[Jeff Sichoe]

as counter-productive as it may be, if I was unemployed i'd sure as fuck smoke heaps more smokes.

the problem with having a job is you can't just sit around smoking all day.

so perhaps if these maori women got jobs, they'd smoke less?

[Doppleganger]

Just fukin ban smoking and be done with it, no more winging about racism then aye

[Akzle]

smoking needs to be made mandatory from highschool through uni. any pussies that get cancer obviously aren't genetically superior enough to breed, or work.

smokers are better than other people.

[FlangMasterJ]

"because of the cumulative stress of the environment"

Nothing more stressful than having to get up before midday and having to collect your benefit cheque.

Poor souls, when is someone going to give them a break?

[mashman]

as counter-productive as it may be, if I was unemployed i'd sure as fuck smoke heaps more smokes.

the problem with having a job is you can't just sit around smoking all day.

so perhaps if these maori women got jobs, they'd smoke less?

I smoke less now that I'm unemployed. You're just weak.

[FlangMasterJ]

I smoke less now that I'm unemployed. You're just weak.

[BuzzardNZ]

They should switch to this...

[Gremlin]

Wasn't there a one-eyed Dr at Auckland University that spouted this kind of crazy stuff? One would swear they're the same person.

I can only hope that it's a piss take, because a blanket tax being labelled racist is ridiculous. Everyone has access to the same resources to help them quit, but if you can't be arsed, then why should anyone make special allowance for you?

[Akzle]

ill remind everyone that i'm happy to ship tobaco plants/seeds around the place for 5 buck and a bag of chips.

[Maha]

ill remind everyone that i'm happy to ship tobaco plants/seeds around the place for 5 buck and a bag of chips.

You're ill? sorry to read that.

[Woodman]

as counter-productive as it may be, if I was unemployed i'd sure as fuck smoke heaps more smokes.

the problem with having a job is you can't just sit around smoking all day.

so perhaps if these maori women got jobs, they'd smoke less?

Funny, was thinking this the other day. Workers can't smoke during work time so the people that can smoke any time are non workers so a bulk of their benefit goes towards smokes instead of necessities, so again the workers are paying for lazy fucks with no self control to sit around smoking.

And the guy in the herald article is a fucken moron.

[WristTwister]

Dame Tariana said the policy of raising taxes was intended to save lives.
"This is not about being racist, because it was me who brought it in. There is absolutely no way that race comes into the argument," she said.
"This particular initiative was about stopping the uptake of cigarettes by young people, and that has worked."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11647612

[Akzle]

Funny, was thinking this the other day. Workers can't smoke during work time so the people that can smoke any time are non workers

so what your saying is that it's those whining hippy greeny fucks that had smoking in the work place banned who are at fault.
Burn the cunts.

[Drew]

Just fukin ban smoking and be done with it, no more winging about racism then aye

That creates a bigger hole in the budget, than the cost of smokers on the health system.