Should Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Be Outlawed? (Essay Sample)

Should Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Be Outlawed?
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For many years the war against tobacco and associated products has been waged with both positive and negative results. The war should be continued to ensure that there is zero tobacco usage due to the health hazards associated with it. Smoking of cigarettes, a major product from tobacco has resulted in many social and economic problems affecting millions of citizens across the world. Although most smokers use tobacco and associated products to bring some form of pleasure, relaxation and relieve anxiety, this paper argues that the government should ban the usage of tobacco products because of its adverse negative effects.
Regarding health, cigarette smokers are vulnerable to many health risks due to the harmful chemical ingredients of tobacco which include tar, nicotine, and ammonia (Fowles, Bates, & Noiton, 2000). The chemical substances have causative effects of appalling diseases like lung cancer, mouth cancer, stomach cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. Cigarette smoking also has digressive health effects to the passive smokers; the people around the environment of an active smoker. They can be family members, coworkers or fellow passengers who inhale inadvertently secondhand smoke from the cigarette smokers. A pregnant woman who smokes exposes herself to the odds of her baby being born prematurely, weigh less or even having a miscarriage, (Zhou et al., 2014; Douglas, 2011).
Economically, smoking a cigarette and using tobacco products is costly to the users and their families (Thielen, Klus, & Mьller, 2008). Cigarette smokers have to constantly quench their thirst to smoke, and this leads to an individual spending extravagantly on a cigarette at the expense of other intrinsic family needs. Money spent to buy cigarette and tobacco products can be invested in Education, Infrastructure, and Tourism among other major sectors. Due to their deteriorating health, smokers may have to spend huge chunks of money and family resources to pay medical insurance or life insurance premium (Health, 2014).
Environmentally, consumption of tobacco products like cigarette or shisha is a threat to the environment as it causes pollution (Mackay & Eriksen, 2002; Zhou, Weitzman, et al., 2014). The dirty substances emitted from tobacco products like tar, nicotine, ammonia and shisha pollute the air making it difficult for the survival of flora and fauna. Similarly, smoking cigarette contributes to bad happenings like causing fire outbreaks (Haustein & Groneberg, 2009). For instance, a smoker can throw away the remains of a glowing cigarette to a plantation or a forest, and this can cause fires when strong winds blow away the smoke, hence starting fires. This, in turn, effects a huge reduction in the world’s economy.
The opponents of outlawing the usage of tobacco products have argued that the banning of tobacco results in locking out about 2.3 billion people in the world who smoke, from accessing their basic substance, cigarette (Rozi, Butt, & Akhtar, 2007). This can, therefore, spur violence and unrest from the smokers who are likely to protest against the government. This can lead to the destruction of property like buildings, schools, and civil war in the country.
Subsequently, it has been argued that banning cigarette can be an incentive to more illegal activities (Jacobson & Wasserman, 1999). For instance, once the cigarette is banned people will try to smuggle tobacco and sell it in the black market for a high price. This will apparently lead to the high crime rate in the world because the few cartels in the smuggling and black market will want to control the business at the behest of the users. It will, therefore, lead to unrest in the world.
Moreover, opponents against outlawing usage of tobacco products have claimed that banning tobacco and cigarette is detrimental to the growth of agriculture and food industry (Kagan & Vogel, 1993; Jacobs, Gale, Capehart, Zhang, & Jha, 2000). Farmers growing tobacco will lose their jobs as their services will not be needed anymore. It is also through growing tobacco that farmers can raise revenue and pay taxes to the government which they belong. To ban cigarette smoking means cutting an avenue for the government to obtain revenue. Companies producing cigarette will close down. It is evident that tobacco farming contributes largely to the world’s economy and banning it means the economy will decline, leading to starvation and or death of people with no means of earning a living. Research also shows that cigarette smoking indirectly contributes to the productivity of work. Most cigarette addicts believe that they need a cigarette to energize and give them the psych to perform difficult tasks. For instance, a lorry driver who smokes depends on the cigar or pipe to catalyze his activity of driving for a long distance. This is also the case with other workers like sweepers, lecturers, and teachers.
Mathematically, the expenses for the treatment of health problems associated with tobacco products surpasses any merits that the products can have to the nation (Stratton, Shetty, Wallace, Bondurant, & others, 2001). Despite the spirited fight, albeit logically, from the opponents of outlawing the usage of tobacco products, the banning of the cigarettes and other tobacco products is the right thing for a nation. This is not only supported by the reasons propagated by the proponents of the proposal but also underpinned by the common phrase, “A Healthy Nation is a Wealthy Nation.”
References
 ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Douglas, A. (2011). The mother of all pregnancy books: An all-Canadian guide to conception, birth and everything in between. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iimsJHcKGCMC&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=A+pregnant+woman+who+smokes+exposes+herself+to+the+odds+of+her+baby+being+born+prematurely,+weigh+less+or+even+having+a+miscarriage.&ots=-Wh0kpAbNe&sig=0PdCvkvSJ0_UTu5pL9wRJWnFvZY
Fowles, J., Bates, M., & Noiton, D. (2000). The chemical constituents in cigarettes and cigarette smoke: priorities for harm reduction. Epidemiology and Toxicology Group, New Zealand, 1–65.
Haustein, K.-O., & Groneberg, D. A. (2009). Tobacco or health?: physiological and social damages caused by tobacco smoking. Springer Science & Business Media. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0LwacNjXL_gC&oi=fnd&pg=PR4&dq=smoking+cigarette+contribute+to+serious+hap