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We've taken away their ads. We've taken away Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man. We've hit them with lawsuits and increased taxes for each pack of cigarettes. After all these actions there is still no stopping the tobacco industry. In 1996, tobacco firms in the US sold 24.2 billion packs of cigarettes. They operated on a $0.30 profit margin (approximately). That means they made 7.2 billion dollars in 1 year!
Now think about that figure. The Minnesota State law settlement cost the tobacco industry 1.65 billion dollars. That costs, well, nothing in the long run for tobacco. As long as they maintain their profit margin they will continue to make money. But with other pending lawsuits, the tobacco industry has a long way to go before they are out of the woods for years of cheating and lying with consumers.
Why is smoking still so popular when we all know that it causes cancer, emphysema, scores of hygienic problems, and death? For years the tobacco industry has targeted children and teens with their advertisement in order to lure potential consumers into a life-long addiction to cigarettes that will generate revenue for the tobacco companies. In a prepared statement before the senate Democratic Task Force on Tobacco, Jeffrey E. Harris MD PhD (who provided the statistics found in the first paragraph) stated that tobacco companies will lose earnings but will most probably remain profitable.
It will be increasingly difficult to stop smoking in a population that has lived with it ever since John Rolfe brought it to the Virginia Colony in the 1600's. With all the studies out there that state that tobacco is poison, there are still young people getting addicted to nicotine and subjecting themselves to a premature death. People cry peer pressure and make anti- smoking ads and send kids to D. A. R. E. programs to keep them off tobacco. But none of this seems to work. The teenage smoking population is ever increasing. Smoking among tenth-graders is up 43% since 1991, and over 1 million kids get hooked every year according to House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt.
Many teens feel that its not peer pressure that gets them hooked on cigarettes. Some enjoy the feeling they get while smoking while others experimented and got hooked on them. Teen smoking is not going away. At school, even with all the strict rules against smoking (including monetary fines, police action, and the smoking cessation program) students still smoke on school property. With the well known "smoker's path" and the sneaky smokers in the bathroom, smoking is a major part of our lives in high school, whether we do it or not. Teachers are disgusted, parents are angry, administration is furious but no one is doing anything to really combat smoking.
The government is appeasing the tobacco industry because they provide much needed campaign funds and boost the economy. Teachers try to catch students smoking but usually to no avail. The administration makes rules that are completely ineffective and do nothing to combat teen smoking but make the smokers more cautious. Police are helpless unless they catch the teenager illegally buying a pack of cigarettes. This is the reason why smoking is not going away.
There is also no set solution to the problem. The most realistic solution, but most implausible, would be to ban smoking everywhere and stop the sale of cigarettes. Many would protest to this decision and it would never be enacted. But what other solution is there? How can we allow the sale of a known poison to millions of people every year? It is our moral imperative that we step back and stop the rolling tobacco machine. People who smoke are at increased risk of heart disease, cancer and other smoking-related illnesses that contribute to more than 420,000 deaths a year. Medical costs for smokers are $50 billion annually, plus an additional $47 billion for indirect expenses, such as time lost from work and disability. Doesn't that teach us anything?
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