History of Natioanlism

Making Cigarettes Illegal Could Lead to the Destruction of Our Country
I
Historical Background Cigarettes are a thin cylinder of crushed tobacco rolled in paper usually containing a filter, which are used for smoking. Today cigarettes contain many things including methane, paint, ammonia, carbon monoxide and stearic acid, however its main ingredient is tobacco. Tobacco is a well known plant grown natively in North and South America. This addictive plant was first discovered by Columbus in 1492 when it was offered as a gift from the Native Americans. Cigarettes were originally used in early America by the Mayan 's and Aztec 's. They would crush tobacco leaves and wrap the tobacco in a corn husk to smoke. Smoking gradually spread across the world and in the 17th century in Spain, the corn husk wrappings were replaced by thin paper. In 1854, Phillip Morris started manufacturing cigarettes for retail sale, in London, England. People use cigarettes for many things such as a stress reliever, a social activity, and an appetite suppressor for weight control. Nicotine is the addictive drug in cigarettes. Nicotine is what pulls many people into the arms of cigarette addiction. The brain becomes very dependent on the nicotine and therefore a person becomes addicted to the cigarettes themselves. The Surgeon General 's office of the US, considers nicotine as addictive as heroine. The problem with nicotine is that not only is it addictive, but there are health affects to it to, because 90 percent of nicotine is passed straight into the blood stream and moves fast through a person’s system, which increases a person 's heart rate and ultimately their blood pressure. Another thing that nicotine has been known to do is cause people to have rapid, shallow breathing and other respiratory problems. Smoking in the U.S. reached its height of popularity in the mid-1960 's but by then U.S law began requiring tobacco companies to label their products as hazardous and restricting certain forms of advertising. Eventually the number of smokers began to decrease as people began to learn about dangers of smoking. Beginning in the 1970 's, state governments began placing bans on smoking in certain areas. Today 38 out of 50 states have some form of restriction on smoking in public with 27 states having a total ban (5).

II
Opposing Viewpoints Many people are against smoking for many reasons, but the three main points are that smoking is a health hazard, it pollutes the environment and it is costly on health care. Smoking is a problem for many non-smokers, because they are afraid of the dangers of smoking to both the smoker and to others around them. Due to these fears, many non-smokers want cigarettes to become illegal. Scientists have proven that people who smoke are at a higher risk of developing lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, breathing problems, display a decrease in taste or smell, creates fertility issues in women, and damages skin. Smoking is very hazardous to one 's health because cigarettes contains over four thousand chemicals including ammonia, and rat poisoning, which is why people believe that smoking should be banned. Smoking is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 5.4 million people a year world-wide and causes more death and disability than any other disease; many family members have lost loved ones to this horrible habit which is why so many people want it to stop. But on the contrary, people have the right to do whatever they 'd like, they have the right to freedom of choice. Most smokers are aware of what diseases they may end up with, but that choice is their own, they get to live how they want to live. There is a saying that goes, "There 's a lot of people who, a cigarette is about the only vacation they have." (Parker, 6) So if it is a person 's vacation, who has the right to take away his only escape from the real world. The second reason for why many people oppose cigarettes is the pollution they create. Cigarettes gravely damage the land, bodies of water and air, which ultimately damages plants and animals. It damages the land because about 4.5 trillion cigarette butts (the un-smoked portion of the cigarette) are disposed via litter per year (11). It takes about 25 years for those four thousand chemicals in the un-smoked butts to breakdown and decompose, in the meantime these chemicals end up destroying the land and ruining the Earth. The production of cigarettes and tobacco are very caustic to the Earth because while the tobacco is grown, pesticides and herbicides are sprayed in order to kill the pests and bugs that like to eat or live on the tobacco. The spraying of these chemicals pollutes the soil, and creates run-off into the waterways. Water is another thing that cigarettes pollute, from the herbicide and pesticide run-off and from the 4.5 trillion cigarette butts themselves. A lot of those butts end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans, which causes the release their toxic chemicals into these waterways. After some time, these chemicals turn the water a tainted color, and poison the sea life in the affected areas, killing all life. The production of cigarettes also uses a lot of paper, due to the wrapping of the cigarettes, which means the needless destruction of many trees. Air is another thing that is affected by the smoking of cigarettes. Overall, cigarettes cause thirty percent of the air pollution in the U.S. and even a larger percent in developing countries. Imagine all those hazardous chemicals being released into the atmosphere with every exhale, polluting the air the entire world depends on. But the pollution of cigarettes are not comparable to a factory that produces fossil fuels. Because the U.S. depends on fossil fuels as energy, factories produce energy which continuously releases extreme pollutants, destroying the air twenty- four seven. This is HORRIBLE for the air and the Earth and it is poisoning the world. If the public believes that cigarettes should be illegal due to pollution, they should really focus on creating a cleaner way to make energy instead of releasing all of those deadly toxins. The only problem is that cigarettes are a health hazard which not only damages a person’s physical appearance but also their physiological health as well. Smoking can cause coughing, throat irritation, nausea, and ultimately a slow death. It also affects a person’s teeth, eyes, skin and voice. It is estimated that smoking related illnesses costs 96 billion dollars annually (13). However, there are health advantages to smoking including the reduction obesity and stress related illness including; high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis and ulcers. Since is it estimated that obesity-related illnesses costs 147 billion dollars annually, and smoking prevents obesity, one could see that smoking reduces healthcare costs overall (14). Smokers also help defer the cost of healthcare by pay higher insurance premiums.

III
Findings
Cigarettes should remain legal because it is not as bad for the smoker 's health as thought, furthermore smokers have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Additionally, the tobacco industry has a positive effect on the economy and if cigarettes were made illegal, crime would increase significantly. Although the public has been told how terrible cigarettes are for people 's health there are several positive attributes to smoking. The nicotine in cigarettes works as an appetite suppressant which helps people control their weight at healthy levels. By keeping obesity in check, cigarettes help prevent obesity related illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and arthrosclerosis. Smoking cigarettes is also known to help people deal with stress. Stress related illnesses include Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), heart attacks, high blood pressure, ulcers, Rheumatoid arthritis, insomnia, chronic fatigue and obesity. Therefore, do not believe all of the non-sense about how lethal cigarettes are for your health, there are some important benefits as well. The founding fathers of the U.S. believed that all citizens have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Furthermore the Harm Principle states that as long as smoking cigarettes does not harm others, and does not pose any issues with the laws of morality, it should remain legal. Additionally, the Harm Principle is in direct contrast to Paternalism, which states the government has no right usurping individual responsibilities and free choice, basically, don 't be a parent, let the individual decide for themselves. Smoking cigarettes does not affect anybody else except the smoker, unless they are smoking in a public area with people nearby. However, many states have already banned smoking in work places, restaurants, and parks so this is really a non-issue. Banning this substance would be defying the forefather 's basic ideas of freedom. An example of the harm principle would be the usage of cell phones. Cell phones are very popular, tens of millions of people own one. However, many studies have shown that cell phone increases the likelihood of brain cancer by 2.5 times. Also, cell phone towers are known to have electric magnetic fields which are known to cause brain cancer. If the public believes that they should ban cigarettes, should they ban cell phones too? People have the right to use cell phones whether it hurts them or not, and the same should be said for cigarettes. During the summer of 2007, the US economy fell into the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930 's. Unemployment has remained near 10% and Americans have really struggled to make ends meet. The last thing the United States needs is to have anything that may make matters worse. If cigarettes were made illegal, it would have a devastating impact on an already troubled economy. Cigarettes are the staple of the tobacco industry, which directly and indirectly employs millions. Phillip Morris alone directly employs 76 thousand people. Other companies like Reynolds American, Loews and Liggett also employ many more tens of thousands. In addition to those directly employed by the tobacco industry, millions more are part of the greater industry, from the suppliers in the manufacturing process, to the delivery and retail end of the industry. In addition to the manufacturing and retail jobs, the tobacco industry spends millions on marketing, which helps support the advertising industry. The tobacco industry accounted for 362 billion worldwide, excluding China. By comparison, the cell phone industry accounts for 164 billion dollars to the economy. Obviously as big as cell phones are to the economy in recent years, tobacco is still bigger. Furthermore, billions of dollars of revenue are collected in taxes, which helps support government agencies and programs. Because smoking has become unpopular amongst American voters, politicians are able to continuously tax cigarettes which creates a lot of revenue for the nation 's government. This helps pay for law enforcement, social programs like drug prevention, prenatal care, environmental causes and healthcare. In a time where it is unpopular to raise taxes and there is great pressure to reduce social programs, taxing cigarettes is a great source of revenue in a struggling economy. If you ever wondered what making cigarettes illegal would do for crime, look no further than the war on drugs today. If cigarettes were illegal, it would create a huge black market, leading to organized crime, trafficking and an overall increase in violent crime across the country. As stated earlier, the Surgeon General 's office, states that cigarettes are as addicting as heroin. If this is true, than making them illegal will create an unprecedented demand from smokers. Smokers, desperate to get their hands on cigarettes, will pay large sums of money to get what they want, leading to the establishment of cigarette trafficking by organized crime. The mafia will become more powerful and drug cartels both in the U.S. and in neighboring Mexico will also jump into this lucrative new market. The public have already seen what an enormous effect the war on drugs has done across the country, especially in Mexico where major cities have plummeted into violence thanks to drug cartels fighting to protect their territory and distribution channels. Cigarette addicts will not be able to afford the habit now that the price has been driven up thanks to is scarcity and organized crime being involved. Smokers will become desperate, just like a crack addict, and will turn to a life of crime to satisfy their addiction. The citizens will see dramatic increase in violent crime gangs protect their turf as well as robbery and murder. The already stressed law enforcement agencies will require more money in order to expand and help combat this large increase in criminal activity. Where will this additional revenue come from? With the tax revenue from cigarettes now gone, there will be even less tax revenue to support local and federal law enforcement which means a further increase in crime.
IV
Projections for the Future Cigarettes will continue to remain legal in the U.S. due to decreasing numbers of smokers, political pressure and the Supreme Court 's ultimate support of smokers ' right to choose.
From the mid 1960 's up until today , smoking has decreased by 23% and continuously decreasing every year in the U.S. The number of people who smoked reached its height in the 1960 's about 42% of the population smoked and has reduced to approximately 14% today (12). The decrease in the number of smokers is a result of greater education, bans on smoking in public places and an increase in taxes on cigarettes which decreases their affordability. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been advertising since the 1960 's to educate the public on the hazards of smoking and many states have also their own campaigns. In addition, the FDA has a program called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 which restricts sales based on age, restricts advertising and promotional methods. Today, most states have placed bans on smoking in public places, limiting the non-smoking public to the hazards of second-hand smoke. In addition to the smoking restriction, federal and state governments have placed high taxes on cigarettes to make smoking less affordable and raise money for anti-smoking advertising and prevention programs. All of these efforts will continue to reduce the smoking population. Another reason cigarettes will remain legal is due to political pressure. Based on the last census, there are 313 million people living in the US today. According to studies on voter turnouts, since 2000, approximately 52% of eligible people voted in the U.S. during the last election (12). Currently 14% of the population smoke. That is 43 million smokers. Now say that a politician would like to run for office and one of his main points is to make cigarettes illegal. The politician would not have a chance to win election into office. Voters who are also smokers will surely be motivated to show up to the polls and vote against him. Even if only 80% of the eligible smokers voted, that is still a whopping 34 million people and would represent approximately 24% increase in voter turnout. This would easily defeat this politician 's candidacy. Not only will most of the smokers vote against him, but many, if not most, non-smokers would also vote against him just on the smoker 's right to choose. But the smoking voters are not the only reason the politician will not be successful. The tobacco industry will probably pose the biggest threat to his candidacy by giving millions of dollars to his political opponents, allowing them spend more on advertising, ultimately defeating the anti-smoking politician. Basically any politician who attempts to support the banning of smoking cigarettes will be committing political suicide. The final reason cigarettes will remain legal is that the Supreme Court will not allow restrictions on the basics rights of smoker. The reason behind this is because the Supreme Court must look out for the rights of the American citizens, and since cigarettes are a life choice giving liberty to the public, the Supreme Court won 't allow cigarettes to become illegal. Cigarettes will remain legal for a very long time and even though many people are against it, many more people are for allowing others to choose to do it.

V
Conclusion
Due to cigarettes being legal, there have been several positive health consequences, people 's rights under the Constitution have been protected, the economy has benefited, and a huge increase crime has been prevented. There are health advantages to smoking including the reduction obesity and stress related illness including; high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis and ulcers. Without cigarettes, the economy would suffer even greater than it already has in recent years. Cigarettes are the staple of the tobacco industry, which directly and indirectly employ millions. Also the government raises billions of dollars in cigarette taxes per year, which help employ millions of public workers. These taxes help pay for law enforcement, social programs like drug prevention, prenatal care, environmental causes and healthcare. If cigarettes become illegal, the public 's right to freedom of choice would be denied. The founding fathers of the U.S. believed that all citizens have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If cigarettes make people happy and do not bother other people because they are enjoyed in their own home, than let them continue to be legal. Furthermore, the Harm Principle states that a person may do what he/she would like to do as long as they are not harming or bothering others. Since there are laws in most states banning any smoking in public areas, there is no need to completely ban cigarettes. Cigarettes must remain legal, but if they do not, then there will be a serious increase in crime rates, similar in ways to Prohibition, but worse. In many portions of our cites, Americans will not be able to walk the streets safely again. Think of Mexico, once a stable, beautiful place, and now headquarters drug cartels, murder and terror. American 's have to ask themselves, do they think it 's worth total chaos and the destruction of their country just so they can abolish a product that has no effect on anybody else but the smoker? This is exactly what will happen if cigarettes are banned.

Works Cited
1. NG, Yuk-Hang, "Lawmakers Approve Tobacco Tax Increase", June 16 2011, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd, www. yuthung.ng@ scmp.com.
2. Walker Guevara, Marina & Wilson, Kate. "Big Tobacco 's New York Black Market". December 19, 2008. Tobacco Underground. www.publicintegrity.org.
3. Bostford, Chuck. "Should Tobacco be Legal?". 2001. www. con-summing.com
4. Head, Tom. "Should Cigarettes be Illegal?" www. about.com
5. N/A. "Brief History of Cigarettes". Cigarettes Bellow Cost. 2001. www.cigarettes- below- cost.com.
6. N/A. "Facts about Tobacco". March 21, 2011. www. cdc.gov.
7. Vernellia, Randall."History of Tobacco". August 31, 1999. www.Adaton. edu.
8. N/A. "Smoking Censsation". 2002. www. Smoking-censsation.com.
9. N/A. "Labeling (Tobacco)". FDA. Dec. 1, 2011. www.fda.gov.
10. Kessler, David. "A Question of Intent". New York: Publicaffairs. 2001.
11. Kluger, Richard. Ashes to Ashes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1997.
12. Turpin, Zachary. "Height of Smoking". N/A. http://www.bookofodds.com.
13. Moyer S. Christine." Smoking Bans Cut Overall Heart Disease Risk". Nov. 2, 2009 Amed news staff. www.ama -assn.com.
14. Werner Erica. "How Much Does Smoking Cost in Society". April 7, 2009. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/08/how-much-does-smoking- cos_n_184554.html
15. N/A. "National Estimated Cost of Obesity". 2011. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/economics.html

Cited: 2. Walker Guevara, Marina & Wilson, Kate. "Big Tobacco 's New York Black Market". December 19, 2008. Tobacco Underground. www.publicintegrity.org. 3. Bostford, Chuck. "Should Tobacco be Legal?". 2001. www. con-summing.com 4. Head, Tom 5. N/A. "Brief History of Cigarettes". Cigarettes Bellow Cost. 2001. www.cigarettes- below- cost.com. 6. N/A. "Facts about Tobacco". March 21, 2011. www. cdc.gov. 7. Vernellia, Randall."History of Tobacco". August 31, 1999. www.Adaton. edu. 8. N/A. "Smoking Censsation". 2002. www. Smoking-censsation.com. 9. N/A. "Labeling (Tobacco)". FDA. Dec. 1, 2011. www.fda.gov. 10. Kessler, David. "A Question of Intent". New York: Publicaffairs. 2001. 11. Kluger, Richard 13. Moyer S. Christine." Smoking Bans Cut Overall Heart Disease Risk". Nov. 2, 2009 Amed news staff. www.ama -assn.com. 14. Werner Erica. "How Much Does Smoking Cost in Society". April 7, 2009. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/08/how-much-does-smoking- cos_n_184554.html 15. N/A