Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Government & Politics tobacco tobacco Now, more than ever, more and more people are beginning to look at tobacco use as a major public health concern. It is nineteen ninety nine, and the number of smokers is rising while the average age of smoking initiation decreases. There are those that believe using tobacco of any type should be illegal, or at least restricted. Others believe it is up to the person to choose whether to use tobacco products or not, however most of these people believe tobacco companies should warn their customers of their products harmful affects. Tobacco has been used since before our nation was colonized. During the seventeenth century, many British settlers earned their living in America from tobacco. King James attempted to decrease the profit made by tobacco growers by imposing heavy tariffs on their tobacco crops. Tobacco use was very well established by this time however, so the taxes didn’t slow production or demand. Many countries at this time had prohibited or restricted use of tobacco. Harsh punishments for smoking tobacco were enacted in Russia, Turkey, and other countries, especially China where tobacco sellers were decapitated. Cigarette smoking did not become popular until the late eighteen hundreds. Although the U.S. was not the first country to use cigarettes, in eighteen eighty three American James Bonsack developed a cigarette rolling machine. Where a skilled cigarette roller could roll about four hundred cigarettes per day, the cigarette machine could produce one hundred and twenty thousand. Mass production also caused the price of a pack of cigarettes to be cut in half. With a “smoking epidemic” on our hands, it was only a matter of time before an anti-smoking movement erupted. Concerned citizens pressured for anti-smoking laws. Many states adopted strict policies, some less strict. In Wisconsin and Nebraska, possession of tobacco was illegal. All states banned the sale of tobacco to children. Despite the prohibitions placed on tobacco in the eighteen nineties, by the first World War, negativity towards tobacco began to fade. The lack of scientific evidence that smoking was harmful at the beginning of the century, and the war effort increased the demand for cigarettes. People only suspected the addictiveness of Nicotine, but could not prove it. It was not until the mid nineteen fifties that smoking was linked to lung cancer and other illnesses. Also at this time, the Tobacco Institute was created. The Tobacco Institute is a lobby, or organization that seeks to influence lawmakers for their own benefit. Today in the nineties, tobacco is legal but restricted depending on where you go. Tobacco sales are restricted to minors, some places have banned vending machines, most have banned sale and use of tobacco in schools, and even more have prohibited the sale of single cigarettes, or free samples of cigarettes. Since our nation was founded we have prided ourselves in the right and ability of our people to make their own decisions and be responsible for their own actions. There are those in our nation that believe tobacco should be prohibited. These people feel that the free use and sale of tobacco infringes on their rights in some way. Others, smokers and non-smokers alike, feel that trying to stop every dangerous and addictive activity is futile, especially with a direct attack such as prohibition. In the nineteen twenties, our government prohibited the sale and possession of all alcoholic beverages. It started out as a popular idea, but ended in much public resentment. Not only was prohibition a failure, but it made matters worse. It made criminals out of law abiding citizens. It brought large amounts of cash out of our economic flow and into illegal markets. It did not cause consumption of alcohol to decrease. It increased consumption, disrespect for the law, and law enforcement corruption. What prohibition is most famous for is giving rise to organized crime. During alcohol prohibition there were many gangs and “crime families” distributing liquor to make money. Big money. Many of the gang members became filthy rich from the high demand for alcohol. These gangsters, many affiliated with the Maffia, were much more dangerous than the gangs of street kids before and after prohibition. Some even boasted killing hundreds of men. This just goes to show that the excesses of prohibition are not necessary. Another type of restriction is called “back door prohibition”. This is imposing harsh enough restrictions on tobacco that it largely affects the tobacco companies. In nineteen seventy one, television and radio advertising became off limits to tobacco. In nineteen ninety five, the Clinton administration and the FDA attempted to ban all tobacco advertising what so ever. Many declared that a complete advertising ban on anything legal is unconstitutional. Any attempt to use “information control” is a violation of first amendment rights. Also it can be argued that it is unconstitutional for the Food and drug administration to pass regulation on anything because they are an unelected body. Censorship has been known to be habit forming and it can get out of control. Assaults on freedom of speech as it is in this situation could lead to assaults on freedom of speech in other situations. A sometimes overlooked effect of banning all tobacco advertising would be that many magazines would suffer from lack of revenue. And what about Cigar aficianado, and Smoke magazine? Would these too count as advertising? The newest “back door prohibition” policy is the class action liability suit. Florida, Massachusets, Mississippi, Minnesota, and West Virginia have all filed, and won lawsuits against tobacco firms for Medicaid costs accrued from the treatment of smoking related illness. Many believe this to be a “politician pick- pocket” scheme, and that the government is only trying to get more money that doesn’t belong to them. The states claims are that the taxpayers should not be paying for smoking related illnesses, but the tobacco producers responsible should foot the bill, rather than the smoker who knows the smoke is harmful and willingly puts his/herself at risk. However in the Florida suit, for example, the state says smokers medical bills cost two hundred ninety million annually. What they don’t say is that they receive four billion in revenue from tobacco taxes. Another argument against this suit is that if people don’t die of smoking related diseases, they will die of something else. They are going to cost Medicaid money no matter what they die of, and often times nursing homes and medical bills from old age cost more than the medical bills of a dying smoker. Essentially if we take this thing too far it will just be said that if we pay each others medical bills (Medicaid) then the eating, exercise, recreation, and social preference of every individual becomes your business. Tobacco is harmful to your health. No matter how much, or how often adept arguers run verbal circles around scientific evidence or any other proof, tobacco is harmful. Tobacco is linked to a variety of illnesses. These include, but are not limited to, cancer of the lung, mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, and pancreas, major risk for heart disease and stroke, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Health care costs for the year of ninety three, caused directly by smoking, cost the nation fifty billion, twenty two of that paid from government funds. The question here is should we allow the nation’s people to continue to harm themselves and our nation’s economy over tobacco and what little good it gives us? Many believe tobacco should be altogether illegal. It is one of our nations ugliest habits, and over fifty million participate. Tobacco is estimated to have caused three million deaths a year worldwide in the early nineteen nineties. This is only from smoking related illness. Tobacco is also the leading cause of fatal fires. Attempts have been made to make cigarettes more fire safe by lowering their ignition propensity. The results have been rejected, however, because the cigarettes are unsuitable in that they have to be re-lit constantly. Another major concern of anti-smokers is the fact that the Environmental protection agency has concluded that second hand smoke is linked to the development of lung cancer. This fact is frightening. Now not only are smokers polluting their bodies, and polluting the ground with their poisonous cigarette filters, but they are polluting the air. The air that everyone breathes. Surely anyone can see the logic in banning smoking from all public places. If cigarette and cigar smoke is harmful, then it should be every persons right to decide whether they want to in hale the smoke or not. Many smokers are very disrespectful. They think only of their rights as a smoker, not the rights of others. How many times have you been traveling down the road to see the person in front of you flick a lit cigarette out of the window? Lit cigarettes can cause automobile explosions. New York school commissioner Charles Hubble gave the following address: “Many and many a bright lad has had his will power weakened, his moral principle sapped, his nervous system wrecked, and his whole life spoiled before he is seventeen years old by the detestable cigarette. The ‘cigarette fiend’ in time becomes a liar and a thief. He will commit petty theft to feed his insatiable appetite for nicotine. He lies to his parents, his teachers, and his best friend.” (Smoking by Lila Gano, page 17) My personal opinion on the matter of whether tobacco should be legal or illegal, is that it should remain legal, but restricted. I do not use tobacco products of any type, however I believe that each person in our country should have the right to decide on his/her own whether they want to use any substance. I don’t mind being around second hand smoke, but I think there should be separate smoking and non-smoking sections in public places such as restaurants. I do not feel that tobacco firms should be held liable for smoking related illness, but instead that health insurance agencies charge their smoking clients more than their non-smoking ones. In conclusion, this is one debate that will always have supporters for both sides. There will always be those that are irritated by smoke, and want it altogether banned, and there will always be those that smoke, enjoy it, and feel they have the right to continue as long as it is legal. But would making tobacco illegal get rid of this group? Probably not likely. Bibliography: Bibliography Smoking, Lila Gano. 1989 Lucent books Inc. San Diego, Cal. Tobacco: people, profits, and money, Gary E. McCuen. 1997 Gary E. McCuen publications Inc. Hudson, Wisconsin. Tobacco wars: smoking under siege SIRS Researcher Groliers 1997 Electronic Encyclopedia Word Count: 1749
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