Cigarettes should be forbidden to sell

Today, one of the biggest and most challenging health concerns in our society is smoking.
Even though it's no secret that smoking is bad for our health, and it's widely known from
children to the elderly, smoking is still the foremost cause of death in the world presently, due
to its damaging and addicting substances, such as nicotine and tobacco. Currently, many
developed countries implement smoking bans in public places, and smoking is only allowed
in areas with smoking signs. Cigarette boxes are printed with the sign that smoking is harmful
to health. I hope the government will not be limited to places where smoking is restricted, but
should forbid cigarette such an addictive and serious health-threatening chronic drug to sell.

One important reason why smoking should be banned is that smoking is the main cause of
death related to cancer and other diseases. “The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public
health threatens the world has ever faced…”-The World Health Organization. According to
WHO data, tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year, of which more than 7 million
die directly from smoking, and about 1.2 million dies from secondhand smoke. That’s means
every hour around the world, there are around 800 people killed by cigarette smoking. In
fact, about one third of all cancer deaths are related to tobacco use. According to the study of
University of California San Francisco smoking damages almost every system in your body
and can lead to Cardiovascular Disease, Lung Disease, Cancer, Reproductive Conditions and
so on. I just wonder why most governments in the world have anti-smoking movements, but
none of them ban tobacco manufacturing, instead they just vaguely accuse the negative
effects of cigarette by imprinting some useless warnings on the pack of cigarette, which no
one pays attention to.

Smoking is an addiction because tobacco contains nicotine, which is very addictive. The
study of University of California San Francisco has shown that nicotine has been proven to
be as addictive as cocaine and heroin and may even be more addictive. We know that many
teenagers start smoking as a stressful and self-identity-seeking developmental stage with a
general lack of awareness of the long-term health consequences. When they reach adulthood,
the vast majority are willing to quit smoking, but getting rid of nicotine has become a lifelong
goal for many.
 At this time, many people will insist that it is useless to ban cigarette selling, and just like
drugs which are prohibited, but there are still many people trade in the black market. But I
think it's just because the drug is illegal, it's a much larger safe distance from our children
than cigarettes. Although the signs that smoking is harmful to health can be seen everywhere,
and there are no advertisements for cigarettes on TV, in many movies and TV series, the core
heroes have advertised cigarettes as positive props. So, smoking is inspired in Tv series and
movies. The different thing is that just because drugs are illegal, drug use in the movies we
see is a negative illegal act. If the sale of cigarettes was banned, then no one would be seen
smoking in our public places, so that our children would be protected from the temptation and
effects of cigarettes at home, at school, on television or in other public places. Therefore, I
think it is very necessary to ban the sale of cigarettes.

No one should be forced to breathe secondhand cigarettes spit out by smokers. Because
smoking is not allowed in the classroom or in our apartment, we often see smoke lingering
outside the school gate and a group of smokers at the gate of the community building.
Sometimes we can catch smells of smoke at the bus stop, even though smoking is prohibited
there. In Italy, moms are smoking in parks where kids can play. When I was pregnant or
taking my baby out, I tried to hold my breath when I met smokers on the road, even though I
knew it wouldn't work. However, we all know that even as non-smokers, secondhand smoke
can lead to premature death and illness in children and adults. What else can we do but yearn
for a world free from cigarette pollution where we can breathe freely?

I recently read an article published on theguardian.com about the CEO of tobacco company
Philip Morris International, the richest tobacco producer, calling on the UK government to
ban cigarettes within ten years. I totally agree with what CEO Jacek Olczak said, ‘see the
world without cigarettes … ’. By leading to nearly 7million deaths per year, cigarettes hold
claim the No.1 spot of the top4 most destructive inventions of human history. The funny
thing is why every anti-smoking campaign is proposed by the tobacco companies? Tobacco
companies make a lot of money from selling cigarettes, but our society and people have to
pay a great price to disasters caused by smoking. A “smoke-free” world seems like an
impossible thing today, but if there is still hope for a world like that, we should start to quit
cigarette. I hope the governments around the world will ban the sale of cigarettes.

Relevant sources of information：

https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/nicotine-dependence