Smoking Cigarretes Should Be Illegal.

Smokers Health Smoking is responsible for 30% of all cancer deaths.[1] The other 70% is composed of non-smokers. How did they get cancer? Who knows! (Maybe from eating too much grapefruits.) I hate the fact that when you see a person whose smoking, you immediatley think they're going to get cancer and die. I know I used to think of it, but with these statistics I see that the bads of smoking cigarettes are exagerrated. However, I do confess that smoking increases your risks to get cancer (especially lung cancer). My opponent states that smoking is deadly, not health beneficial. However, smoking alone does not cause certain diseases[2]. For example, "smoking alone cannot cause Buerger’s disease, you need to be 30 years old and above and a male to have it. Smoking alone cannot cause Raynaud’s disease, you need to be 40 years old and above and female to have it." The list of diseases goes on and on. Overall, what I'm trying to say is "smoking is a pre-requisite to a disease but not merely the root cause of such disease." [2] My second source also lists 18 benefits that are all health related. Some include the following: -Hypertension (high blood pressure) is less common among smokers -postpartum hemorrhage are lower in smokers -RBCs [red blood cells] from cigarette smokers contain more glutathione and catalase and protect lung endothelial cells against O2 [dioxide] metabolites better than RBCs from nonsmokers -for more benefits go to source #2 Non-smokers Health Nowadays, smokers can only smoke in designated areas, which are usually outside. Unless you are in a restaurant where there is a designated area, a non-smoker will have to choose to sit in that area, which then will become the non-smoker's fault. Now, for parents who smoke near their kids, I believe that if your kid has to go to the hospital becausse of you, you desrve to pay every single penny. There are 2 alternatives for parents who smoke: 1) quit smoking 2) don't smoke near your kids Freedom of Choice Freedom means exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.. By taking away smoking, you contradict the definition of freedom. It would be more like you can do this or that but either way it would go my way. "If we want to maximize freedom of choice, what we should do is ban things that remove people's freedom of choice." I don't need to contradict this statement because it contradicts itself. Prohibition "Drunk driving fatalities accounted for 32% of all traffic deaths last year, that is, on average someone is killed in an alcohol-impaired driving crash about every 50 minutes in the U.S. (Source: NHTSA/FARS, 2010)"[3] Drinking does have an effect on people. Several people die because of a drunk driver. But, this argument is not about drinkin but of smoking. I would like to ask you: What does public risk? Every country has different results when it comes to statistics. Just because it's a starteling 65 in your country doesn't mean that it's going to have the same results in my country. I agree there is nothing attractive about illegal things. However, some illegal things do seem attractive to the youth. For example, teenagers nowadays think drinking is cool so they will pressure you to do it. Same with crack and other drugs. So, smoking will reach the youth. There is a law in the United States that states that people under 21 cannot buy cigarettes. Yet, teenagers are allowed to smoke. So, if a teenager finds someone who will buy a them cigarettes they will be exposed to cigarettes. There is nothing we can do to stop teenagers from smoking, or drinking(which the law states nobody under 21 can drink). Model Your model sounds good. However, there are some flaws. The same way some people make joints, people are going to start making homemade cigarettes. They have already made electronic cigarettes, yet people stay with the regular nicotine filled cigar. Why? The aren't addicted to it. They just think of it as a placebo. They think it increases concentration or that it educes stress, but in reality it's all a placebo. Not the best one, but it has a different effect depending on what they expect to get. Sources: 1 http://www.cancer.org... 2 http://www.ljdiaz.com... 3 http://www.centurycouncil.org...