Smoking Should Be Made Illegal
Kelvin Omogbeme CIGARETTE SMOKING SHOULD BE BANNED IN THE SAME WAY AS OTHER ILLEGAL DRUGS Tobacco is one of the most widely used drugs in the world, mainly in the form of a cigarette. Although most countries have tried to restrict the use of tobacco, people still smoke everyday despite the fact that it is poisonous and harmful to their health. Cigarette smoking has been part of our lives for many decades now. Whether cigarettes should be banned or not becomes an object of controversy for many countries. Smokers claim that smoking helps in reducing their stress and also it strengthens the economy.
But the negative aspect of smoking outweighs the positive. Smoking is a bad habit, and it is not good for human health. Cigarette smoking has seriously negative effects and it should be banned completely because it is hazardous for smokers and non-smoker’s health, it costs a large amount of money, and also it tends to influence people around us. Firstly, smoking undoubtedly helps many people to relax. For some, it even improves concentration. Many people like to smoke before exams or when they are relaxing with friends. A further point is that governments throughout the whole world make huge profits from levying taxes on cigarettes.
This provides funds which are used for building schools, hospitals and other public amenities. The tobacco industry also employs tens of thousands of people throughout the world, particularly in poorer countries. Without cigarettes, these people would have no jobs and they will be suffering. However, despite these points, the arguments against smoking are strong. Smoking has been shown to be hazardous to people’s health. Smokers are taking into their body large amount of toxic such as; nicotine, carbon monoxide, and ammonia daily. These chemicals are dangerous to our health.
First of all, cigarettes contain 4000 chemicals in it, and 69 of them are known to cause cancer. Smoking too much causes first-hand smokers to get yellow teeth, swollen gum, skin disease, and bad fingernails. They are also known to get headaches, lung cancer and bad breath much more easily than nor-smokers do. Years ago, millions of people died of lung cancer because of smoking. It was a dreadful scene. Those families were sad and they went bankrupt because of the amount of money they spent on treating their loved ones illness, while they were sick in the hospital. Smoking can cause damage to the respiratory system and circulatory system.
Furthermore, people who smoke get heart attacks and their kidneys no longer function properly. About 400 thousand Americans die each year, and 5. 4 million die globally from smoking related disease. The most common illness causing deaths are respiratory disease such as, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease like high blood pressure and heart attacks. From x-rays results, a smokers’ hearts is known to be much darker than a non-smokers heart. The most amazing part about a smoker is that he knows that it is terribly hazardous to him, yet he continues killing himself slowly.
Cigarettes contain nicotine which is an addictive substance and that is why it is hard for smokers to stop smoking. Smokers are occasionally outside smoking, making the people beside him or her breathe in smoke too. These people are known as second-hand smokers or non-smokers. When second-hand smokers breathe in first-hand smoker’s smoke, they also get badly harmed by it. Cigarette does not just harm the people who smoke, they also harm the people who are near them and breathe the smoke. Non-smokers do not like to breathe polluted air; they feel annoyed when someone around them smokes.
For instance, if you are trying to enjoy a meal in a restaurant, and you suddenly inhale the smoke from your neighbor; you will feel uncomfortable. Studies show that exposure to cigarette smoke for as little as thirty minutes a day can raise a non-smoker’s risk of suffering a heart attack. Children are being harmed by first-hand smokers and it is unfair. Children’s lives are being put at risk every day because people make the bad decision to smoke. When children breathe in cigarette smoke, they have an increased risk for childhood illnesses such as asthma and ear infections. It is also harmful to pregnant women and unborn children.
If the health of a pregnant smoker is not enough for her to quit smoking, then the health of her baby should be. Smoking during pregnancy affects you and your baby’s health before, during, and after your baby is born. The nicotine (the addictive substance in cigarettes), carbon monoxide, and numerous other poisons you inhale from a cigarette are carried through your bloodstream and go directly to your baby. Another reason why smoking should be banned is because it helps to save money for better use. Many people who smoke cigarettes are not even aware of how much they spend on cigarettes every month.
Depending on how much people smoke, it can run up to a couple of hundred dollars per month. People spend lots of money on buying cigarette. If people are not allowed to smoke, they gradually reduce the number of cigarette they smoke; thereby, saving lots of money. All the money they spend in buying cigarettes can be saved and used for something much more important and useful like paying off a loan or a saving for a child’s education. After all, we can better our society by educating the future generation to be financially sound and debt-free. Just try stopping smoking cigarette; you will be surprise how much amount of money will be saved.
Finally, another reason why smoking should be banned is because smokers tend to influence people around them. For instance, when your son or daughter sees you smoking, he or she would become interested in trying it; thereby he or she may be addicted to it and that makes him or her become smoker. Same thing goes with a teenager, who just entered high school, and he sees his teacher smoking, or even at work when your colleagues see you smoking, he might be influenced too especially when the smoker gives it so much importance and glorifies it like it is the best thing to do.
This definitely has an impact on the way a person thinks about smoking, and more often, leads people to begin smoking. As you can see, smoking causes a lot of problems in our society. The reasons why smoking should be banned is because it is dangerous for smoker’s health and non-smokers health, it helps to save a lot of money and it tends to influence other people around. What people don’t realize is that they have the power to control, and stop the terrible habit that affects them and millions of people across the globe.
If smoking is banned, the food that smokers eat will begin to taste better, their sense of smell will return to normal and they will gradually be able to exercise or do normal chores such as taking out the trash without loss of breath and wheezing, their blood pressure becomes lower, the carbon monoxide level in their blood drops to normal, coughing and shortness of breath decrease and the lung cancer death rates will reduce and people will be able to save a lot of money. If smoking is banned, the environment would be a better, and a safer place to live for us and our future generations.
Overall, I think the world would be a better place without cigarettes. I suggest the government take immediate action and stop the puff of smoke from coming out of a person’s mouth and make them happy and invincible from smoke! Therefore, cigarette smoking should be banned in the same way as other illegal drugs. REFERENCE Rachael Rettner. (2013, January, 25). Should cigarette smoking be illegal. Retrieved from http://www. foxnews. com/health/2013/01/25/should-cigarettes-be-illegal/ Andy Phan. (2011, July). Should Cigarette Smoking Be Banned. Retrieved from http://www. tudymode. com/essays/Should-Cigarette-Smoking-Be-Banned-707870. html Tom Head. (2009). Should cigarettes be made illegal. Retrieved from http://civilliberty. about. com/od/drugpolicy/i/cigarettes_ban_2. htm S Chapman, R Borland, M Scollo, R C Brownson, A Dominello, and S Woodward. (1999, July). The impact of smoke-free workplaces on declining cigarette consumption in Australia and the United States. American Journal of Public Health July 1999: Vol. 89, No. 7, pp. 1018-1023. Retrieved from http://ajph. aphapublications. org/doi/abs/10. 2105/AJPH. 89. 7. 1018
