Smack of Reality: Should Smokers Bear the Responsibility for the Health Risks of Cigarette Smoking?

I believe that smokers should bear the responsibility of the health risks of cigarette smoking. This subject needs to be split up into two different eras.

First, we have the cigarette smokers of long ago. They did not really know the health risks of cigarette smoking and they really can't be expected to be responsible for risks that they did not know. I am referring to smokers who got cancer from cigarettes and then found out in the 90s that cigarettes cause cancer. These people really did not know what they were getting into when they began smoking and did so for decades. They deserve compensation from the tobacco companies who withheld information and, even if the companies did not know, they should still be responsible for compensating smokers whose health was damaged by their product.

In this case, I believe that the tobacco companies bear the sole responsibility of causing cancer in thousands of people. These smokers are innocent.

Secondly, we have the modern smokers. They know about all of the health risks of cigarette smoking and they really need to be responsible for their own actions. They know what cigarettes do, if they continued to smoke. This is the dumbest irony in humans - to continue to do things in the face of the truth.

People know that cigarettes cause cancer, so they have the proper knowledge to make an informed decision and stop smoking. If they continue to smoke, even though they know the risks involved, then it should be their responsibility to not smoke. When they get cancer, it is their own fault and they should be majorly held responsible for any adverse effects they received from cigarette smoking.

In a few of my articles about smoking, I said that the government knows that cigarettes are dangerous to our health but they continue to allow cigarettes to be sold. They try to make themselves look proactive by charging smokers higher taxes in an effort to appear like they are really trying to decrease the number of smokers.

Instead of collecting higher taxes, I think that the government should either stop the sale of cigarettes completely or cut cigarette taxes and allow the people, who know the risks and continue smoking, to bear the brunt of any health conditions that they receive as result of smoking. If they want to smoke and get cancer in the face of knowledge, then they should be allowed to.

If smokers with the knowledge that cigarettes cause cancer actually get cancer, they should be responsible for all of the medical bills associated with it. They should not be allowed to sue the tobacco companies like they have been and probably always will. They are adults and should be able to make responsible and intelligent decisions about products that can harm them.