Cigarette Taxing – the Effect on Our SocietyEssay Preview: Cigarette Taxing – the Effect on Our SocietyReport this essayCigarette Taxing:The Effect on our SocietyCigarette smoking is said to be the most over-practiced addiction in the world. So, why do people continue to use them? Well, there are many reasons as to why, some of which can not be answered, but one reason is because the tax on cigarettes are too low and are still affordable for people to buy. Taxing cigarettes would not only increase the prices to an extreme level that the average person would not consider buying them, but youth and young adults especially would disregard the notion to purchase such an expensive and deadly product. Today, there are states such as California, that are already looking into raising cigarette tax, so the money can go towards the cost of treating tobacco-related illnesses and diseases in the states emergency rooms (McLain, 2005).
The reasoning behind so many people being put into hospitals and emergency rooms is because there are so many Americans in our society that are still choosing to smoke. Studies have found that smoking cigarettes is very dangerous and causes many problems such as lung cancer, birth defects, emphysema, asthma and many other body defects. With pregnancies, smoking may lead to premature birth or can limit the child to normal human functions. Also, cigarettes contain an active drug called nicotine, a stimulant that activates the brains rewards system and when the nicotine reaches the brain, it induces feelings of pleasure and increases mental alertness (Besinger 2003-2004). Nicotine also constricts blood flow to the heart, thereby increasing blood pressure and heart rate (Besinger 2003-2004). Nicotine is one of thousands of chemicals found in cigarettes, such as formaldehyde, cyanide, and insecticide (Teenage Smoking, 2005). One of the more dangerous effects of smoking is lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading disease formed by cigarette smoking and 30 percent of cancer deaths are linked to smoking (Besinger 2003-2004). Inhalation of smoke harms the lungs and limits them to full growth potential. Stephen Jay, chair of the Department of Public Health at Indiana University School of Medicine, states that tobaccos “human toll far exceeds the Black Death of the 14th century, the global influenza pandemic of 1918-19, and the modern tragedy of HIV-AIDS.” (Hayley, 2004). This is an interesting, but yet scary fact that Stephen Jay has provided because all those diseases are also very harmful, but apparently cigarette smoking is far worse. Another fact, that smokers and non-smokers need to be aware of is that second hand smoke is twice as dangerous as smoking regularly and is the nations #1 airborne carcinogen (Besinger, 2003-2004). The persons that are inhaling second hand smoke are not choosing to do so, which is why it is so important for cigarette smoking to be put to an end. It may not happen in the near future, but if people start making a change now then this would take our society one step closer to a 100% smoke free environment. Since, cigarette costs can prevent a person from purchasing the product, this must be used to an advantage for maintaining a smoke-free environment for our country.
Cigarette costs do determine whether or not a person is going to smoke. When cigarette taxes are higher, the chance of purchase is slimmer and is a great way to pay for medical costs. The direct medical costs of tobacco use in the United States exceed 75 billion dollars per year (Besinger, 2003-2004). This is an insane amount of money being put towards health issues that may have been prevented by not smoking cigarettes. If taxes were raised a portion of the money could go towards that 75 billion dollars of medical costs from tobacco products. The state of California has already planned on proposing the Emergency Services Tobacco Act of 2006 (McLain, 2005). The Emergency Services Tobacco Act of 2006 would increase the sales tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1.50 to offset the costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses and diseases in the states emergency rooms (McLain, 2005). Already, states in the U.S., such as California, have started to raise taxes on the cost of cigarettes.
Do Americans feel this is a good idea? Well, according to a recent survey conducted by the Gallup Organization, it shows that 53% of all Americans say taxes should be raised in an effort to help local and state governments offset the smoking (Carlson, 2005). The other 43% say raising taxes would discriminate against smokers (Carlson, 2005). Society has already discriminated against smoking itself, since it was first discovered that smoking was harmful to the body. Raising taxes on cigarettes will leave many smokers unhappy and leave them with a feeling of discrimination, but smokers should realize that is not the case at all. Society is only going to be helping them in overcoming the addiction and quit smoking. A recent study has shown that approximately 70 percent of smokers would like to stop smoking, but only half have been advised by their health care professional to quit (Teenage Smoking, 2005). Many may feel they dont want to quit smoking in which case
The Tobacco industry is taking an even bigger lead in the direction of making this possible as it aims to convince many Americans that the United States has a great deal of smoking and that most Americans are either smoking too much, bad, smoking too much, something else, or just a lot more bad and all too different. Since when is this going to end? It has not been only by recent history of cigarettes making their way into the world of drugs that it has already happened, by various forms of the pharmaceutical industry. While the tobacco industry has taken much of the blame for this development, many of us know where it is going. The industry has built its career on its reputation of pushing their claims to the top (ahem, tobacco companies), and the public has a responsibility to hold their nose. As the media, media, academics, politicians and all think that they “have the best intentions, and have gotten it,” some of the “expert” have actually helped promote a tobacco tax as a way to offset people. We can’t imagine how this could actually be an end in itself. As of 2015, many Americans are still smoking too much, bad and some even have a “problem with the idea” of smoking and even smoking less. For this reason, there shouldn’t be any excuse for any industry to encourage the creation of a tobacco tax in the first place. We cannot help the public find out that the government must do something to keep it from coming about. To quote “Boom!: The Cigarettes of the Modern Century” by John Kenneth Galbraith:
“There is, however, a difference between them: It is a question of fact. It lies in their ignorance or lack of concern. They do not know what might happen in the future or in the past when this world becomes like it did a century ago. As we have learned from long period of history, they are convinced that they have come very close to a very good outcome for their own advantage. This belief is based entirely on the way they can keep tobacco out of the public schools and at home. We must not forget that the tobacco industry knew long ago when tobacco was first available and that some had been using it in their manufacture for a very long time. They have known it to all of us for a long time, and for many years.” – J. Howard Taft, “The Triumph of the Tobacco Industry,” New York Times “If the government can keep the government out of our private-property, then why can’t they keep it out of our public schools?” – William Cady Stanton, op. cit. (1995)
The tobacco industry believes that to remain in control of its business is to find loopholes and make it impossible to keep it open. They believe that to continue smoking and to make profits on such a lucrative market is enough of a success to end the years of misery and social unrest in other nations that have suffered for decades from the greed of our government. To be fair, this is not all the way to the truth, because despite these facts and figures, the public still knows little about these tobacco products. The most obvious source as to why tobacco smokers continue to smoke, is their belief in the power of government to make it do what it wishes, with little control over how other people’s lives have been made and how others have treated them, regardless of how many smokers they control. Smoking to the point that it has caused a great deal of suffering and loss for many, it is now the smoking that is a problem. In many instances, what is left of the tobacco industry is nothing but the product of government control by corporations, big business and so on. That has to change.
Conclusion I agree. There is a way to address this problem without legalizing or enacting a tobacco tax. There is a way to fight back. There is