Double price ciggies

I’ve just been lying here in bed listening to talk back radio and the many many callers ringing in to talk about the Maori Party proposal to increase the price of cigarettes to double the price. There is a fairly even number believing that increasing the price will help make people give up smoking and ones that don’t think it will. Of course the only people calling in were smokers.

Now while I normally have nothing in common with the Maori Party (of late even less in common with their views) but I have to admit I think increasing the cost of cigarettes may very well help increase the number of people trying to give up.  However, I have to agree with the large number of callers who feel that it is unfair to increase the cost of cigarettes when alcohol stays the same. To make a real difference both alcohol and cigarettes need to have a price increase, along with availability made harder.

Personally I feel alcohol and cigarettes should not be available through corner dairies and supermarkets but rather only available for liquor barns and liquour outlets only, and only available from around lunch time until 10pm. There is no real need for either item to be available at reasonably low cost 24hrs a day 7 days a week. Seriously, what possible need is there for that?!

It was incredible to hear just how much people will give up so that they can have their cigarettes and booze. One young mum rang up saying “there is nothing better than a glass of good wine and a cigarette after the littlies have gone to bed!”

Nothing nicer? Really? I can think of hundreds of nicer things, like the “littlies” laughter or hearing them say “I love you mummy” to name but two. This same young mother went without a home phone line and computer/internet but still smoked a pack a day. I don’t know much about costs of smokes and how many in a pack and all that jazz, but I have seen packs for sale at about $7 per pack, so by my calculations she is smoking approx $49 a week away. That is almost $200 a week.

That would most certainly cover a homeline and internet, my plan costs me $80 a month and I have a high data usage being a student! As her littlies get older they will be missing out on some very important research sites (or if they don’t they will have to use public libraries or internet cafes to do their research) for homework. Going to public sites to study just isn’t fair on a child who has no control over their parents’ actions.

Then there were those comments like, it only affects me, no-one else. Well that is wrong! I watched my grandmother die from cigarette use and all I can remember (I was two when she died) is her coughing up blood. For a two –year-old to remember that and only that, surely that says something about the impact that had on me. I have no doubt anyone watching their family smoke their life away will have the same effects.  Although I am certain those effects are stronger the older the observer gets.

So, while normally I think very little of the Maori Party, I have to say I agree with their stance on this in ways. I just think on its own it will do very little, but couple it up with less advertising, less accessibility and do the same for alcohol and perhaps we might get somewhere.