Smoking Products Should be Banded in the US

Smoking Products Should

be Banned in the US

The cigarette is the deadliest object in the history of human civilization. It kills over half its users from diseases it causes. I know first-hand how it affects people. Someone in my family smokes and I had to watch her smoking and coughing. Smoking is a very brutal thing to put your body through. After decades of smoking, she was diagnosed with Tongue Cancer. When I found out, I was devastated. Then after about four years of chemotherapy, she didn't get any better, in fact, the chemo made her feel miscible and worse. So she quit the chemo and is now just going to the doctor for her checkups. About one year after quitting chemo she got this weird bump on her neck that started to grow as the months went on. Turns out it is her neck swelling up from her cancer and her many surgeries. This tells you what smoking can do to you. This is why I think smoking products should be banned in the US. My reasons are that we spend way too much money on cigarettes and that they kill a lot of people.

First, just in America, we spend $80 million per year on cigarettes. “Each year, a person who smokes one pack per day will spend $2,011 on cigarettes alone. If you smoke 2 or 3 packs a day, in a year you will lose $4,022 and $6,033 on cigarettes.” -CNN https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/pf/1105/gallery.money_wasters/4.html. All this money that these people waste on cigarettes could be put towards more mandatory things such as a nice plate of food, electricity, clean water, shelter, and supplies.

Second, just in America, smoking kills about 443,000 people in a year and then on top of that it kills 8 million people worldwide. “Smoking is killing more than 8 million people a year around the world. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.” -World Health Organization https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco. This means that these cigarettes are so dangerous that even if you live or are around someone who smokes you have a better chance of getting sick from second-hand smoking than someone that lives or is not usually around someone who smokes. 

Although some people might say that a lot of people might suffer from withdrawal symptoms. “3 days after quitting smoking, the nicotine levels in a person's body are depleted. While it is healthier to have no nicotine in the body, this initial depletion can cause nicotine withdrawal. Around 3 days after quitting, most people will experience moodiness and irritability, severe headaches, and cravings as the body readjusts.”  -Medical News Today https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317956.php#timeline. Though, “In as little as 1 month, a person's lung function begins to improve. As the lungs heal and lung capacity improves, former smokers may notice less coughing and shortness of breath.” -Medical News Today https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317956.php#timeline. This explains how even though they will have withdrawn symptoms their lungs and organs will keep getting better as time goes on.

In conclusion, smoking is a very dangerous and a riskful thing to do to your body because your body was not built/made to smoke and believe me if it was life would be much different. These are many reasons why I think that smoking should be banned in the US.