"...Indeed, the Ministry of Health's five-year plan for tobacco control, released in 2004, put price increases at the top of a list of effective anti-smoking measures. This had already been underlined by local experience, which showed a sudden and sizeable reduction in cigarette sales whenever the tax had been increased..."
70% of the price is already tax.
80% or 100% will be just as effective at getting smokers to quit.
Up the tax rate enough and you provide NZ's criminal classes with another revenue stream.
Crap grade leaf laced with who knows what!
But this being the easy fix and the one that snatches the most loot for the powers-that-be, you can be sure it will happen.
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