Making Tobacco Illegal: The Fight That Should Be Over

Making Tobacco Illegal: The Fight That Should be Over

I. Tobacco is ever present in this modern society. It is a daily encounter, and little is thought of it. This encounter may be passing through a cloud of smoke on the way to work, or stepping outside to smoke a cigarette, if a person so chooses. Tobacco cannot be ignored with people inhaling smoke by choice or not. In "Smoke alarm," the article illustrates the dangers of inhaling secondhand smoke that is not directly inhaled, saying," Nonsmokers have to breathe sidestream smoke continually. This smoke, which does not pass through a filter, is burdened with twice the tar and nicotine, 50 times the ammonia and substantially more cancer-causing substances, like nitrosamines, than mainstream smoke," (Cousins). Smoking strongly affects the health of an individual in a negative way, and it affects the health of people around a smoker as well. As the health effects of smoking are becoming increasingly well known, it is difficult to not acknowledge them and take action accordingly. Why then, do people continue to smoke? The addictiveness of cigarettes is one reason why. "The nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive. Medical experts say that it is as addictive as heroin or cocaine," (Kennedy). Once a person starts smoking, they become hooked on it and it becomes more difficult to stop and quit with each cigarette they have. In turn, being physically and mentally reliant to a product that so negatively impacts one's health leads to the deaths of well over 400,000 people every year in the United States alone. That number is higher than the deaths of automobile accidents, alcohol abuse, illegal drugs, AIDS, murder, and suicide combined (Kennedy). Our society has not lived without tobacco though, as it may seem obvious to do knowing the harmful effects coupled with that staggering number in mind. The tobacco companies show why all in their numbers. "Tobacco is the country's fifth-largest cash crop. The industry's revenues compare with those of the aerospace and electrical-equipment fields; consumers spend about the same amount of money on cigarettes that they invest in radios, televisions, records and musical instruments combined. Excise taxes alone on tobacco add about $6 billion annually to state and federal coffers," (Cousins). With that significant of an effect on the economy of the United States, living without tobacco would cause an enormous impact on the people of America. The tobacco companies have a stronghold in the economy of the United States and with certainty they do not want tobacco gone. But many people make a strong push for tobacco to be outlawed as it has been in other countries. A regulation of tobacco is the least they push for and that voice has not been quiet.

II. Edward Kennedy defines the fight against tobacco in his article "The Food and Drug Administration Should Have the Authority to Regulate Tobacco Products." Senator Kennedy understands that the complete illegalization of tobacco products is out of hand currently, and the best option he has is to allow for the regulation through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This article utilizes the overwhelming impact that tobacco products and smoking have on the health of Americans and the dishonesty and the ignorant practices of the tobacco companies to prove why a regulation at the least is needed.

Kennedy details in this article the marketing techniques that tobacco companies use in their advertising to attract new smokers, the bent claims the the companies make and the concealment of information. Annually, the tobacco industry will promote its products using thirteen billion dollars. A large majority of that money is going for the crooked process to get children to try smoking and get hooked on it before they are even legally allowed to (Kennedy). With the seemingly infinite number of deaths from tobacco stated above, it is cruel that the companies would want this for children as well. Without anymore advertisement than there currently is, four thousand children smoke for the first time this day which hooks twenty five percent of them (Kennedy). Tobacco companies have been proven to place claims on their products that hold false information, and they naturally conceal the true dangers of their products from the consumers. All of these wrongdoings show that there is a need for actions to be taken, and that action is a regulation.

Kennedy also proves the need for an FDA regulation by showing the horrible health effects smoking has on people. "Six million of the youth today will die from diseases tobacco has caused, and that is over four hundred thousand every year". This number may be caused by "the nicotine in cigarettes being as addictive as hard drugs" (Kennedy). The levels are still on the rise and that is another reason why so many of the 40 million Americans hooked on cigarettes die (Kennedy).

People against the regulation, Kennedy says, say that the "FDA should not regulate a product as dangerous as tobacco" (Kennedy). It is just the opposite, however, because such a dangerous product needs more regulation to make it less dangerous. Something must be done, because "four hundred thousand deaths a year" and "four thousand new child smokers a day" is too high (Kennedy). Overall, this article did an excellent job of showing just why a regulation on tobacco is needed.

The fight to regulate and ban smoking in the United States should be much easier than what it is. The youth of America are being educated on the dangers of smoking so often that they should never think to take a single puff of a cigarette, but still so many do. As with countless other actions, the first step is the most important one, and the decision to try a tobacco product could hurt them for the remainder of their life. From that first step into the world of tobacco, the quality of the user's life drops with each day. The tobacco companies will gladly accept this new victim into their deceitful world and clamp down on their life until it's end. The terrible effects tobacco has on the human body, the highly addictive nature of cigarettes along with the harm from other chemicals, and the danger that cigarettes pose show reason that tobacco should be banned in the United States.

III. Ultimately, smoking and tobacco products have a devastating effect on the well-being of a human body no matter if an individual inhales one breath, or thousands of breaths from thousands of cigarettes. The short term effects are bad enough, but the long term effects rival those. The tobacco companies themselves do not even want to acknowledge these effects as they have shown