Many people understand that cigarettes are a major contributor to health problems but continue to smoke them due to their addictive chemicals. Many people also know someone who smokes cigarettes. Cigarettes were first manufactured in 1865 and their use became widespread in 1881. At that time there was less technology and a lack of knowledge of the health risks of cigarettes, so it is understandable that people didn’t realize that “cancer sticks” actually caused cancer. Cars, music, technology and virtually everything in between has changed drastically over the past 100+ years, but cigarettes are still basically the same.


A major contributor to why the tobacco industry is still booming is because they are sold behind the cashiers of gas stations and convenience stores. It makes it insanely easy for cigarette smokers to purchase cigarettes. A smoker, buying a bag of chips or a bottle of water at a convenience store, can be easily enticed to purchase cigarettes even if they enter a store without the intent to purchase cigarettes. Cigarette companies spend absurd amounts of money to get their product right behind cashiers. Ronald Davis of The New England Journal of Medicine explains that “According to the Federal Trade Commission, total cigarette advertising and promotional expenditures reached $2.1 billion in 1984”(Davis 1). These numbers since 1984 have increased, and it is estimated that these companies use over $5 billion in advertising annually. To put this in perspective the government started to advertise against these companies in 2012, but only spent $54 million in their advertisements to discourage smoking. If the government is willing to spend this amount of money on advertisements trying to discourage smoking, why don’t they just make cigarettes illegal?

“In 1963, Canada’s first woman Health Minister, Judy LaMarsh, informed Parliament that one of the most commonly used consumer products, cigarettes, was lethal. “There is scientific evidence,” she affirmed, “That cigarette smoking is a contributory cause of lung cancer.”” (Callard, Thompson and Collishaw 24). It is amazing that it almost took 100 years to realize that smoking could be linked to lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and even coronary heart disease. Currently it would be ludicrous to think that smoking cigarettes would not affect ones’ health. As government and health agencies found out about what science was saying about cigarettes, they were able to legally require that cigarette companies release industry marketing documents and data. Along with the government and health agencies, cigarette companies adapted due to the facts that science produced. However, with these increases in scientific evidence the cigarette companies did not try to make their product less harmful. “The purpose of their adaptations was not, however, to help smokers quit or to prevent children from smoking or to reduce the harm caused by their products. Their goal was to maintain and increase profits” (Callard, Thompson and Collishaw 22). When looking at the cigarette companies, it is sad to realize that they cared more about making money than the health of individuals around the world.

Cigarette Replacements

Since the early 2000’s there has been an increase in ways to stop cigarette smoking. Some of the more popular ways include e-cigarettes and nicotine patches. In the early 2000’s Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, created the electronic cigarette. E-cigarettes are becoming more popular across the world as people realize that they need to quit. “The US patent application describes the e-cigarette device as “an electronic atomization cigarette that functions as substitutes [sic] for quitting smoking and cigarette substitutes” (Grana, Benowitz and Glantz 1). While e-cigarettes are not a completely safe alternative, they take away certain risks that cigarettes present. E-cigarettes can also be cheaper for the consumer than cigarettes. In certain U.S. cities a pack of cigarettes can cost more than $10. For addicted smokers that can add up to a lot of money in a short time period. The benefit that e-cigarettes have is that you buy juice instead of cigarettes. The juice that goes with the e-cigarettes is much cheaper than cigarettes over time. Products include regular e-cigarettes, pen-style e-cigarettes and tank style e-cigarettes, each with their own benefits. All three of these e-cigarettes are rechargeable, so once you purchase one the only additional item needed is the juice to go with it. Buying the base for the electronic cigarettes can vary in price from around $20-$250, and the juice costs the consumer around $10 per 30mL. The price per milliliter will also decrease when buying in bulk. E-cigarettes are known to be safer than normal cigarettes, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions about these products since they are so new to the market. 

“There has been rapid market penetration of e-cigarettes despite many unanswered questions about their safety, efficacy for harm reduction and cessation, and total impact on public health. E-cigarette products are changing quickly, and many of the findings from studies of older products may not be relevant to the assessment of newer products that could be safer and more effective as nicotine delivery devices” (Grana, Benowitz and Glantz 1). 

One of the major benefits found is that since the e-cigarettes produce vapor there is no second hand smoke that can be inhaled by others. Even if there is undiscovered data that proves e-cigarettes to be just as harmful as normal cigarettes, not having second hand smoke helps others around the smoker who don’t want to negatively impact their own health. Sales for e-cigarettes have skyrocketed over the past few years and are expected to keep rising. Smokers around the world are beginning to realize that they need to kick their bad habit before they develop serious health problems like cancer, heart disease or strokes. “BIS Research estimates that the global electronic cigarette industry will exhibit a growth of over 22.36% (CAGR) from 2015 to 2025, to reach a total market value of $50 billion by 2025 as per its updated report” (Electronic Cigarettes 1). This study shows that people are getting behind the concept of electronic cigarettes. No form of cigarette smoking is completely safe, but if long time smokers are able to replace cigarettes with e-cigarettes it could help many to quit smoking cigarettes.

College campuses around the world are breeding grounds for the next generation. Many college campuses say that they are tobacco-free yet students will not get in trouble for smoking on campus. However, even though schools do not penalize students for smoking on campus it is a good way to stop some of the students that potentially would begin smoking. One problem with having a tobacco-free campus is that students can go right off campus and buy cigarettes. Many colleges have bars or clubs close to campus where the tobacco industry targets college students. These stores market to the intoxicated college students out late at night and early morning. ““Both alcohol and nicotine are addictive and stimulate the part of your brain that acts on rewards,” explains Marina Picciotto, Ph.D, professor of psychiatry at Yale University, who studies nicotine's effects on the brain. “Taking one is like priming the pump, and it makes you crave the other”” (Schultz 1). It is disappointing that business owners look at this as an opportunity to make money. In a perfect world these owners would not sell cigarettes to college students. Instead they could tell them to buy something else with the $5+ they are wasting on a pack of cancer sticks. Sadly though, we don’t live in a perfect world, or anything close to it. Cigarettes should not be allowed in any store within a certain radius of college campuses. Students would be less likely to smoke if it was a tiresome trip five miles off campus to buy a pack of cigarettes. This plan would not end smoking at college campuses, but it would decrease the number of cigarettes on campus and the number of students who smoke.

Laws

To drink alcohol in the United States the consumer must be at least 21 years of age. Even when the consumer is 21 years old they are not able to consume alcohol in public. Alcohol does not affect anyone besides the person drinking it, in most scenarios, but it is still illegal to consume it in public. Marijuana is illegal in 48 out of 50 states, so in the majority of states it is illegal to have marijuana in your possession. J. Michael McGinnis and William H. Foege are medical doctors who examined the factors that contribute to death in the United States. Their study says, “The most prominent contributors to mortality in the United States in 1990 were tobacco (an estimated 400,000 deaths), diet and activity patterns (300,000), alcohol (100,000), microbial agents (90,000), toxic agents (60,000), firearms (35,000), sexual behavior (30,000), motor vehicles (25,000), and illicit use of drugs (20,000)”(McGinnis and William 1). This stat should be appalling to everyone. There are four times more deaths attributed to tobacco as compared to alcohol. Additionally, a large part of the alcohol related deaths come from driving under the influence. This study shows that cigarettes are a major contributor to deaths in the United States. Another interesting statistic is that there has never been a death linked to marijuana. As Nick Wing of the “Huffington Post” says, “Yeah, not a single person has ever died from a weed overdose. We don’t have numbers on pandas, but we’re guessing it’s about the same. According to one frequently cited study, a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a joint in order to be at risk of dying.” Seeing statistics like this make it reasonable to think that the government may have the wrong things legalized. It is irresponsible that the legal age to purchase cigarettes in most states is only 18 or 19 years old. Americans are legally allowed to buy cigarettes two to three years before they are allowed to legally purchase or drink alcohol. Maybe there is something else about cigarettes that makes them beneficial to society. There are many possible ideas that the government could put forth to decrease and hopefully stop cigarette smoking, one would be to shut down all major cigarette producing companies. If the government did this they could sell cigarettes through non-profit businesses. Selling cigarettes for non-profit would be beneficial because the people producing them would not care how much they sold. These businesses instead would be able to make labels on the box of what cigarettes can do to you. If a box of cigarettes came with the numbers of deaths per year, all the side effects, and a picture of lungs after smoking there would be a decrease in sales. Since the new sellers of cigarettes wouldn’t be trying to make a profit like the current companies are they would be more willing to say negative things about the product. Current manufactures mainly care about making a profit, not the health of their customers, making it unclear why the government won’t consider changes to these cigarette laws.

When laws are put into place they often are not changed. A question that can spark a lot of discussion could be: if we had no laws against drugs, alcohol or tobacco and evaluated each without bias, what ones would be deemed legal and illegal? There may be a lot of similarities with the current laws but there would probably be some changes. Drugs like heroin, cocaine and other harmful addictive substances would still be illegal. Would cigarettes fall into this category though? Or would they still be legal to 18 and 19 year olds and available for purchase at any local convenience store or gas station? Although the answer is unclear since it has not happened, there are some logical guesses that can be made. If reevaluated, the legal age to buy cigarettes should definitely be increased. Similar to alcohol, cigarettes provide no health benefits and come with a lot of negatives. In 1994 the tobacco age was increased from 16 years of age to 18 years of age. Now, 23 years later it may be time for another change. The government has the ability to accomplish this because of their ability to change laws and regulations. An example is the government beginning to legalize marijuana use. Over the last four to five years, major cities in the United States have started to legalize recreational marijuana. These cities would not be changing their laws and legalizing marijuana unless there were facts and researching showing that marijuana is not as harmful as once thought. Since the laws about marijuana are changing, why can’t the same be done for cigarettes? It is much more clear to people that cigarettes are harmful and not beneficial for any reason. More people would agree that cigarettes cause harm compared to the benefits marijuana provides. It is confusing why the laws for cigarettes have not changed over the past 20 years, as most everything else in the world has.
