Smoking Kills

Smoking is by far the dumbest thing you can do with your time/life/money, etc. Nicotine is a drug pure and simple. Cigarettes are probably the most addictive drug out there and it is available at virtually every store in America. How smoking cigarettes/cigar/cloves, etc. is legal is beyond me. Everyone, even the most resistant chain smokers out there, deep down know it is unhealthy, a waste of money, and will lead to premature disease and ultimately death. It says so right on the side of the package!! At least Soda or all the other poisons out there in the store for you to unknowingly buy don't say "Caution: this will kill you" on the side like a pack of cigarettes.

So what should be done with the smoking industry? Part of me thinks they should make cigarettes 25 cents a pack and let everyone smoke their brains out, die and get them out of society. The smoking industry would never go for that because they make billions of dollars a year, only to put a lot of that back into advertising towards the country's youth for more lifelong smokers. The other part of me thinks they should make cigarettes $50 a pack so you have to be rich to smoke (or live out of your car or rob the bank to afford it). The problem with that situation is that cigarette companies want to appeal to the average person and even the poor need to be able to afford to smoke in their eyes.

I am also offended by smoking because you aren't just killing yourself - the smoke gets everywhere. I can smell it if the car in front of me on the street has a driver smoking- that's ridiculous! They should go 5 steps past where they are now...instead of having a room in the airport you can smoke or you have to be outside, etc. You should only be allowed to smoke on your property. No smoking on public property (no street corners, on public roads, airports, restaurants, period!). You can only smoke in your yard or in your house. Anything else is a flat rate ticket of $1,000. Sounds extreme? Well, it can kill and cause illness in those around you. It's completely avoidable. But I have to fly somewhere and can't avoid walking by that smoke pit room in the airport - I shouldn't HAVE to hold my breath and feel my eyes/nose tingle for a few seconds after I past by. That's wrong.

Statistics:

390,000 Americans die from the effects of smoking every year.

Smoking increases your risk of a Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest by 2-4 times.

Secondhand (Passive) smoke kills 53,000 people a year.

Cigarette smoke has over 4,000 known chemicals. 41 of those cause cancer.

Cigarettes are in same category as ARSENIC and ASBESTOS by the EPA!

The people around a smoker don't have the luxury of a filter.