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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Why cigarettes should be illegal

    Why cigarettes should be illegal

    Cigarette smoking is killing about 480,000 people per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths from secondhand smoking. Everyday about 1,300 smokers die. Cigarettes should be illegal due to the fact it kills thousands of people and causes so many type of cancers and other illnesses. There are so many types of cancer, but here are the major type of cancer from smoking: cancers of the liver, colon and rectum, lung, oral cavity and throat. More cancers include esophageal cancer, cancers of the larynx (voice box), stomach, pancreas, bladder, kidney, and cervix, and acute myeloid leukemia.

    These all do harm to your body and each cancer will slowly kill you day by day. There are a lot of things in a cigarette. Some toxins in a cigarette are acetone, which is found in nail polish remover and Acetic Acid which is an ingredient in hair dye. Another thing that is in cigarettes are ammonia, which is a common household cleaner–but the most dangerous thing in a cigarette is tar and arsenic which is used in rat poison. This right here should stop you from smoking cigarettes, but the worst part is that there is a lot of nicotine in a pack of cigarettes. That is why people cannot stop buying them because they are addicted to smoking.

    A pack of cigarettes is expensive, a pack goes for about $7.50 and that adds up.  A pack a day smoker can spend $2000 per year which can be about 25% of all their income. The only reason that cigarettes are still legal is because of the tax money they give to the government. Another reason why cigarettes are legal is because smokers still want them and they knew the risk when they smoke. Smoking cigarettes should be illegal because it will still kill thousands of people and there are no benefits from smoking cigarettes.

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