Smoking is an addiction that people spend so much money on. It is also a major health hazard. Smoking causes 35,000 nonsmokers to die from heart disease each year as a result of second hand smoking. Smoking causes Bronchitis, asthma and emphysema, Lung cancer, Cancers of the mouth, Chronic coughing, Less oxygen in the body, Damage to mucous glands, Breathing problems, Heart disease, Heart attacks, Stroke, and Peripheral vascular disease. After you quit smoking you will feel healthier, look better, and it will reduce your risk of getting diseases. Including heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, lung cancer, throat cancer, emphysema, ulcers, gum disease, and other conditions. If you quit you improve your sense of taste and smell, save money, prevent face wrinkles, get rid of stained teeth, improve your skin, increase your stamina, you won’t cough as much, and you will have fewer sore throats.

          Tobacco has been used for centuries. It has been ingested in different ways, including chewing, sniffing, and smoking. Today the most common way to consume it is by smoking. Tobacco is one of the most powerful stimulants known to man. A single puff of a cigarette exposes the body to over 4,000 chemical compounds and 600 additives. Tobacco has a long history in the Americas. The Mayan Indians of Mexico carved drawings in stones showing how to use tobacco. These drawings date back to somewhere between 600 to 900 A.D. Tobacco was the first crop grown for money in North America.

          There are pros and cons for smoking.

Con- Having standing outside in the winter freezing your fingers off just to smoke.

Pro- It is an excuse to walk away from a boring conversation.

Con- Gross teeth.

Pro- During work, smokers can take breaks.

Con- you get wrinkles around your lips from puckering.

          Smoking has so many effects on your body. One thing smoking does to you is it makes you stupid. It has been proven that smoking lowers your IQ. Researchers tested the IQs of more than 20,000 healthy men the ages of 18 to 21 who were serving in the Israeli military or who had recently completed their service. Twenty eight percent of the men smoked, 3 percent were former smokers, and 68 percent had never smoked before. The average IQ of the men who smoked is 94. The IQ of the men who are non-smokers is 101. The men who smoked more than one pack of cigarettes a day had an average IQ of 90. A normal IQ is between 84 and 116. It is still considered amazing that smoking could cause a difference in your IQ.

          My plan is to get people to stop smoking in the state of New York. I want to make the distribution of tobacco illegal. If this law is put into action there will be a major decrease of smoking problems in New York. Tobacco is a deadly drug that kills over 35,000 people every year. Tobacco is only legal for public consumption because the government makes a profit from it. The United States of America’s economy was built from the tobacco and cotton industry during the time when most Americans used slaves to work on their plantations. Several past presidents and families of rich politicians have pasts that are tied to the owning of tobacco plantations. Our government doesn’t want to make smoking illegal or ban smoking in general because they benefit from the deaths of their people. The best action to be put into use now, is to ban the selling and smoking of tobacco altogether. One action to make smoking illegal is to have some department in the government to create and pass a law against smoking. Another action would stop the distribution of tobacco cigarettes in New York state. My final action would be to have many commercials of what happens when you smoke, what your insides look like, and all the reasons of how it kills you and why it is bad for you. In these commercials there will be pictures, videos, and other peoples feelings towards smoking.