In discussions of smoking in America, one controversial issue has been the availability of tobacco products in the free market.  On the one hand, smokers argue that making the use of tobacco illegal would violate their right to make their own discussion regarding what they do to their bodies.  On the other hand, health conscious citizens support anti-smoking laws and believe that the use of tobacco has harmful effects on society.  My own view is that tobacco is dangerous not just to the individuals who use it, but also to society as a whole, therefore it should be banned from being produced altogether.  Instead, we should be promoting healthier alternatives such as electronic cigarettes.

My whole life I have heard it said that tobacco is detrimental to a person’s health.  Tobacco contains a chemical called nicotine which causes addictive effects which endangers our health as humans.  Ross Pomeroy, a biologist and writer for the Scientific American, argues that “nicotine is more dangerous than cyanide”(Pomeroy).  In making this comment, Pomeroy urges us to be aware of how serious tobacco affects our health.  Pomeroy is surely right about the dangers of tobacco because recent studies have shown that according to the World Health Organization, “tobacco kills about six million people globally each year”(Jacquette).  While understanding the large social dangers of this plant we will understand that tobacco is one of the most deadly preventable deaths..  My point is not that tobacco is just unhealthy, but that tobacco is a poison and should be treated as one.

While it is true that tobacco is just another plant, I still insist that tobacco qualifies as a dangerous poison.  By focusing on tobacco as a plant, people overlook the deeper problem of the poison nicotine killing other organisms in our ecosystem.  Recent studies have shed new light on tobacco endangering the ecosystem.  According to Jessica Weeks, a Harvard graduate writer from Massachusetts, “nicotine is a neonicotinoid which harms beneficial species including bees, earthworms, butterflies and fresh water snails”(Weeks).  In other words this plant is a harmful poison to humans and other life forms that we care about.  I believe we should control and limit to production of these plants because they can harm more than just our species in the biosphere. Yet some readers may challenge the view that tobacco should be available similar to other plants, drugs and chemicals.   Although I agree with people thinking plants should be available in the free market, I cannot accept the mass production of poisonous nicotine harming humans and the ecosystem.  

Many people assume that tobacco use is a personal choice but there is a massive exposure of tobacco products to us in our daily lives. .  Though I concede that individuals choose to consume tobacco products, I still insist that there are external pressures forcing people to be in contact with these plants.  I have always believed that tobacco has been introduced into our lives without consent in many different forms.  Every time a person goes inside to pay for gas at the gas station they are introduced to a wall of tobacco products.  I have personally been offered coupons for cigarettes while in public spaces.  Most children in today’s society are even exposed to celebrities using tobacco on television.  Major League Baseball even allows players to chew smokeless tobacco during games.  I find this to be a form of advertising towards the public that influences people to join in on the action.  Woohyun Yoo makes a similar point when he states, “Celebrities generate awareness to the health risks of smoking” (Yoo 49).  Yoo’s point is that if we are influenced by other people to do certain actions, then smoking could also be yet another action that we follow.  We should be good role models to our future generations and remove tobacco from our society so these kids can understand how serious of a health effect it can cause on your life.  As a society, we should prevent this plant from entering our life and damaging our youth.  The removal of harmful substances out of the public eye is one of the key factors in lowering the use of tobacco across our nation.  In sum, external effects can influence a person to do something that they normally would not do such as abuse tobacco plants.  

While interacting in everyday society, you can consume nicotine in the environment without your consent.  Which is critical to your health.  Professor Nicholas Gilpin, a neurobiologist who specializes in drug and alcohol addiction, has found that being surrounded by small doses of nicotine in the air formed by second hand smoke will increase your chances of dosing nicotine yourself.  I find this to be an insightful talking point because if you are ingesting tobacco second hand you will want to consume smoke as well.  I also see this as a moment when you think about all of the kids that’s are exposed to the second hand smoke in their homes from the grandparents, neighbors or parents smoking nearby. This becomes a major talking point in removing tobacco from society because when you are inhaling second hand smoke you are raising tolerance towards the drug and indirectly consume nicotine without making a decision to do so.

Some countries like Russia have taken steps toward making tobacco harder to gain access to. Russia has agreed to ban the sale of tobacco products to people born after 2015(Jacquette).  I agree with Russia’s decision and believe that the effects of this law will greatly change the way we talk about tobacco.  This allows people to quit with a more forceful attitude.  In America, we have also changed certain laws to prevent younger individuals from using tobacco.  The state of Massachusetts has agreed to change the legal minimum age required to purchase tobacco from 18 years old to 21 years old (Tuoti).  Laws have also been passed in recent years to remove smoking from restaurants, public parks and government office buildings.  This may sound like a small step in removing tobacco from public areas, but these small changes make it harder for people to smoke and spread nicotine addiction.  In addition, other governmental organizations such as the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development have announced its goal to ban smoking in all public housing (Jacquette).  Organizations have the power to implement strategies to remove tobacco from society and are bettering the health of our future citizens.

Harmful side effects of tobacco are being pressured onto individuals more and more every day.  There are many anti-smoking companies like “above the influence” which is a popular commercial company that targets teensmoking and other drug addiction issues in younger Americans.  In addition to these negative advertisements there are “nicotine craving” groups that act as a form of therapy for those trying to quit smoking.  Other forms of therapy include the “patch” or Nicorette gum” which act as medicine to slowly lower nicotine cravings.  Nicotine changes your brain chemistry and with these substitutions of nicotine in the form of a treatment can lower one’s dependence on the drug.  I agree with these forms of treatment because they work to lower tobacco dependence and this is what we should be spending our money on to help those with nicotine addiction. As a society, we should invest in alternatives as much as we can to remove tobacco from our lives for a healthier longer living society.  While being aware of the dangers of nicotine we can discover new alternatives to help aid tobacco users back to health.

A recent innovation in this pursuit is the E-cigarette, which does contain nicotine, but is a healthier alternative to smoking a real cigarette.  E-cigarettes, also known as E-cigs, are a new technology that uses concentrated nicotine and water vapor to allow the user to receive a controlled amount of nicotine.  This new form of nicotine inhalation removes combustion of tobacco out of the equation.  I believe that this technology is dangerous to non-smokers, but will greatly help the current smokers who are trying to quit.  As a growing society, we should not encourage the use of E-cigs but learn to use them to remove the real plant from society.  In other words, if the e-cig becomes popular it will then lower the amount of real tobacco produced throughout the industry.  I believe that funneling the plant into a controlled concentrated liquid will help us rid the use of the traditional tobacco plant.  

Healthier alternatives to cigarettes will allow us to rid our addiction as well as clean up our society from deadly diseases such as cardiovascular issues, throat cancer, and lung cancer.  Electronic cigarettes provide a less dangerous nicotine source than traditional cigarette smoke(Ross).  I believe that transitioning into a vapor form of nicotine is less lethal than having the tobacco plant smoked because there would be less carcinogens harming society.  Tar, a sticky substance known to cause cancers, is not found in electronic cigarettes which allows smokers to adapt to a new healthier nicotine dose.  I do not think that electronic cigarettes are healthy for non-smokers but I do believe that they can be used to help current smokers control the damage they do to themselves.  This new technology should be implemented into the free market to allow people to find healthier nicotine products.  Disposable nicotine cartridges could be a healthier form of the drug instead smoking or chewing the traditional plant.  I believe that if we concentrate tobacco into not being used that we have helped society on a large scale.  E-cigs will lower the amount of dangerous chemicals in the air and allow our world to be a cleaner place.   I believe that we should allow this new technology to help lower our tobacco demand and rid our planet from dangerous poisons.
