Turia wanted a tobacco ban

NewstalkZB reports:

Former Maori Party Leader Dame Tariana Turia has voiced concern a target to make New Zealand smoke-free was set in the first place.

This comes after Acting Prime Minister, Winston Peters described the Smoke-free 2025 target as an unachievable PR exercise.

Dame Tariana Turia told Larry Williams she wants to get rid of cigarettes all together.

“I think if we’re being really honest, I didn’t want a target. I wanted cigarettes to be taken off the shelves, and for us to stop selling a substance that kills 5,000 people a year.”

So Dame Tariana wanted a ban. Prohibition worked so well for alcohol in the 1930s didn’t it. Imagine the black market a ban would create.

But we don’t have to imagine it. Bhutan effectively banned the sale of tobacco in 2004. The smoking rate in Bhutan has gone from 1% to 25%.

Bhutan even sends people to prison for possessing tobacco, yet the black market is everywhere.