Debate Nirvana

Numerous harmful as well as addictive substances, such as nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, are present in tobacco products. Specifically, when ingesting tobacco, neurotransmitters flood the brain, causing 1) damage throughout the nervous system, 2) impairing behavior and thought, and worst of all causing immense addiction. Apart from the variety of cancers it causes multitude of chronic diseases of the heart, lung and various body systems. Every 8 seconds around the world someone dies from tobacco in some form. 1 in 10 adults are killed by smoking related illness of tobacco. By the year 2018, it is estimated that 1 in 6 people will die because of smoking or tobacco related illness. More deaths are caused by tobacco use than by AIDS, drug abuse, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. The effects of tobacco addiction cause enormous ripples around the world, and can most directly be halted by no longer manufacturing such products.

In the U.S itself, annually about 150 billion dollars are spent on taking care of various diseases caused due to smoking. Japan spends about 100 billion dollars annually of tobacco-related health issues. The entire world annually expends a combined total of approximately 1 trillion dollars. The diseases and sicknesses includes various types of cancers including lung cancer, chronic lung diseases caused due to smoking, higher incidence of heart attacks, various vascular diseases etc. It adds billions to Medicare spending and is one of the reasons for the risk of Medicare going broke in future, causing others who are not involved in ingesting tobacco to lose their health care coverage. By 2025, it is projected that health care costs for tobacco will be approximately 3 trillion dollars around the world. If drugs like cocaine etc. can be made illegal more reason to do for tobacco.

 As stated before, the carcinogens, tar, and other substances impair behavior and thought. This clearly has a direct correlation with work performance and quality. In a study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, smokers cause their employers to expend 100 billion dollars in premature death and disability. Current smokers average 3 times as much sick-leave as nonsmokers, as well as significantly more sick-leave than ex-smokers. Current smokers were also the least satisfied with their life According to the American Productivity Audit Data of US workforce, tobacco use was one of the greatest causes of lost worker production time (LPT) greater than alcohol consumption, family emergencies, age or education. It also increased in relation to the amount of tobacco consumption. This contention refutes any claims the opponents might have about jobs being created. The health care expenditures, along with money spent of various vocations, as well as the maintenance(of facilities where smoking occurs) not only cost more than money made by the products and jobs, but also have a larger impact.

People may not use tobacco products, but nevertheless suffer by being exposed to second hand smoke, causing an increased risk to all the harmful effects of it. Even though they are not at fault because of others faults of using tobacco products (smoking in this instance), they end up destroying innocent lives. As stated before, health is snatched from the needy people who have not done anything wrong. Furthermore, workers who labor alongside tobacco users are at the risk of poor performance and possibly being fired. It simply is not fair for workers to be held liable for someone else’s actions. Annually, approximately 75,000 workers are laid off in the US, as a result of co-workers using tobacco. In a nutshell, it simply isn’t fair to ruin millions of lives for insignificant pleasure.

Every single day 80,000 to 100,000 children start smoking around the world. According to the Journal of Psychology, when teens become involved in smoking, drugs, alcohol, etc. their addiction is more than twice as hard to get rid of as a result of immaturity and a still growing brain. All these kids continue smoking as young adults and are unable to kick off the habit and finally suffer from its adverse consequences. Majority of the underdeveloped and developing world have no way of proper regulation of tobacco products and cigarette sales as my opponents will bring up. This exposes the most vulnerable population in the world that is children to tobacco products deleterious effects. These children are the world’s future; allowing them to smoke and use such products is a horrible influence on them, as well as on the generations after them. If the young of the world become involved in smoking, their ability to perform well in school will become impaired, causing them to be less successful.

Tobacco is a big cash crop for some developed countries like U. S., U.K. and Japan which get the most profits from it. It not only kills and maims people in these countries but also in the third world where it is causes greater death and destruction due to illiteracy, poverty and improper health care. The tobacco companies for their meager profits end up causing more harm and destruction in the entire world. In fact, looking at the highly probable long-term effects, the overall money (including all the costs related to tobacco) would not be a gain. By making it illegal it will serve humanity better. Long-term deleterious impacts matters more than the short term profits made.

Even though many health studies on tobacco’s health related concerns have been carried out and restrictions may have been put on the products, these methods have proven not to be very effective to addicts. When becoming addicted to drugs or smoking, Dr. Martin, from the Cleveland Clinic, says, “People close their eyes and plug their ears, and take a blind path down the cliff.” The odds of pushing people out of the path of addiction are minimal. The only sure way to control this is by illegalizing the products. 90% of tobacco users begin under the age of 18, just when their brain is in vital stages of development. This speeds up the chemical addiction in their brain, no longer making it a choice to use tobacco, but a necessity. Governments around the world need to recognize that addicts are walking with their eyes closed, and it isn’t infringing their freedom of choice.

 Cigarettes and other tobacco products everywhere in the world are not sold to minors {(under 18-U.S.) or16/ 21 years of age-some other countries). So, regulations are already in place which prevents its misuse. There are strict limits on public smoking in various places. These curbs have helped reduce the inappropriate use of them and the actual incidence of use has dropped over the years. The products manufactured now go through more stringent measures wherein they are better and safer products than before. This shows that regulation works and is a better solution than making it illegal. The quantities of different types of substances, such as nicotine, also are limited. Instead of completely voiding the manufacturing of tobacco, more restrictions should be made. This has a multitude of more benefits than illegalizing: a) the entire tobacco economy, profit, and jobs will not be dropped; b) health care costs will go down; c) and will not interfere with people’s freedom of choice.

 Tobacco and cigarette companies for years now have had warnings on their products. They spend enormous efforts on educating the public about the possible risks. Multiple studies and news reports show the hazards of tobacco. So, people who use it these days are using it with proper knowledge. Most of its use is for its entertainment value, socially. It helps people relax, relieves their stresses in their life. This is actually beneficial; otherwise these same people would be depressed and unable to perform any significant work. It avoids use of the most commonly used medications the world over that is antidepressants. Depression is a major scourge and is the largest cause of decreased productivity and suicide in the world. By illegalizing tobacco, the work quality will be lowered, causing various detrimental effects. Tobacco products keep the workers up and running, helping the U.S. as well as the world economy moving.

The basic tenet of any democracy is the freedom to choose by the people. On top of this, the first amendment for us in the U.S. guarantees this freedom. If it is made illegal, it infringes on the first amendment. While laws can be enacted for public smoking restrictions, there is no legitimate basis for laws restricting private smoking. This would be like passing laws prohibiting people from eating too much, sleeping too little, skipping medications or taking on too high stress jobs. By passing laws against tobacco products, our civil liberties are threatened- because the sole basis of government as established in the Declaration of Independence is to protect the rights of the individual citizen.

Alcohol is one such substance which is known to harmful effects if misused and abused similar to tobacco. It is also directly or indirectly involved in various health problems, accidents, suicides and other causes of death. It is similarly used socially for its entertainment value and benefits. There are restrictions on its use which have worked for years. So why should tobacco products be any different.

Millions of people use tobacco in some way or other. The livelihoods of lot of these people are in some way dependent on it. If this is banned the immediate response will be it will incite surreptitious use and result in a big black market around the world. This actually results in more harm than good by leading to higher crime rate and making a larger population of citizens corrupt. This will lead to corrupt decisions and an unstable government and society. Even when there’s a black market, numerous people could use tobacco; there’s just no certain way to deter people from using the products. Currently, there is a black market for illegal drugs, in which more than 70% of high school students have experimented with the drugs. This is clearly not an effective system and could be what might happen to the tobacco market.

Tobacco is an important part of the economy of lot of rural communities. Restriction of tobacco related products will have a substantial impact on the economies of these regions. A lot of jobs are going to be affected and lost not only in tobacco farming but also in manufacturing. 3.1% of people with jobs have jobs related to tobacco. This is a fairly large portion of workers; illegalizing tobacco will thus push down the unemployment rate to 12%. In addition, tobacco related jobs and companies hold about 11% of the U.S. economy. This at this time of economic downturn wherein the unemployment rate is already at a record high could push us back into a recession again and possibly into a depression.

The government does not have adequate resources to presently fight crime. Deploying law enforcement personnel to change the behavior of millions of people is not only going to be exorbitantly expensive but also impractical. Furthermore, it will take an immense amount of money to take the sudden step of illegazing the product. Australia once took such a step in trying to illegalize this cash crop; in just 6 months it expended 15 million dollars and still was not able to come up with an effective system. Hence, it repealed the banning of the products. In our economy, are we willing to take the risk of having to spend money on something that might not even turn out to be successful.