Should Smoking be Made Illegal in the United States? By: Emily Blotzer-Miller

Why????? Health Problems Second- hand smoke Nicotine Tobacco Advertisement Smoking while pregnant Littered cigarette buts

Health Problems Smoking causes many cancers, diseases, and other health issues It is the number one cause of disease and death that could be preventable worldwide Smoking-related diseases are the cause of 438,000 deaths each year in the United States

Second hand smoke Also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) It is a mix of smoke given off by cigarettes, pipes, or cigars and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers Secondhand smoke causes almost 50,000 deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year

Second Hand Smoke in Children In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of, children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis From the chemicals that cigarettes give off, approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood

Nicotine Nicotine is a drug that is in cigarettes Nicotine affects the brains pathways of reward and pleasure. These brain changes along with the use of nicotine result in addiction The amount of nicotine in cigarettes has increased an average of fifteen percent in the past ten years Tobacco companies are doing this on purpose, because increased levels of nicotine make it harder for smokers to quit

Quitting Smoking When people try to quit smoking, they experience several symptoms which include, cravings for tobacco, irritability, difficulty paying attention, sleep disturbances, and an increased appetite Even with patches, medications, and therapies it is VERY hard for smokers to quit

Young Children Smoking Every day approximately 3,600 children between twelve and seventeen years of age smoke their first cigarette, and an estimated 1,100 of them will become regular smokers. Half of them will ultimately die from their habit Among students under eighteen who are current cigarette users, 70.6 percent were not asked to show proof of age when they purchased or attempted to purchase cigarettes from a store, and 66.4 percent were not refused purchase because of their age

Tobacco Advertising The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibited tobacco companies from advertising their product in markets that target youth. Since the MSA, the average youth in the U.S. is exposed to 559 tobacco ads Since they cannot target their ads directly to the youth, now tobacco companies are focusing their ads on young adults, because children want to be like them

Pregnant Women Smoking Babies of mothers who smoke are twice as likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as babies of nonsmokers It causes health problems for babies, and in some cases death Harmful chemicals from cigarettes can be passed into breast milk from the mother, and to the child, resulting in vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea

Cigarette Butts Cigarettes are the most littered item in America Cigarettes take decades to degrade They cause numerous fires each year If animals eat these butts, they cause problems for them If these butts get into soil, they can contaminate it, and make the things growing in it toxic

Plan The plan to make smoking completely illegal in the United States would take up to five years: Ban smoking in all indoor places in every state Stop tobacco advertising and start advertising about all of the negative effects of smoking The government would help people quit by providing patches, medication, and therapies. Tobacco companies get shut down (The government will provide jobs and financial assistance to those who lose their jobs) The making, selling, and/or smoking of cigarettes will be made illegal in the United States. The punishment for breaking these new laws will be the same as all other drugs

Conclusion Smoking causes so many problems People who smoke are not only harming themselves, but they are harming other innocent people, children, babies, and our environment Now is the time to save lives, by making smoking illegal in the United States