Cigarettes and tobacco have been legal to use in America
since it’s founding in 1776. The
first pushes to ban cigarettes came in the late twentieth and early
twenty-first centuries. Since banning cigarettes has proven to be very
unlikely, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) attempted to make it mandatory
to have graphic pictures of black lungs or tracheotomies on the cover of
cigarette containers. These
proposals were denied by congress due to the fact that it violated free speech
rights. The FDA is trying to speak out for the roughly 443,000 who die each
year because of use of this product. So now the question is raised. Will
cigarettes ever be illegal?
My
answer: not in our lifetime. The reasons are numerous and are very hard to
argue against. Around a fifth of adults in America smoke; any politician would
be mad to try and take away what so many people love and “need”. The government of America may also be
against the ban of this product even if it does harm this many people. Billions
of tax dollars are brought in each year and taxes increase on this product
annually. Another thought that
would scare legislature from banning cigarettes: Prohibition. We all know that
the banning of alcohol was very ugly. It hurt America and only led to it being
sold illegally without tax. All these reasons for not being able to ban this
harmful item leave very little hope for trying to save many lives. Currently,
the only option is to try and raise awareness of the dangerous causes of
cigarette smoking.
