By:Lucas.G

Over the past several years smoking has been declining, which is great, but there are still more smokers out there that we need to stop.  I can’t do it by myself so I need your help.  I think smoking should be illegal because it has devastating effects on your health, it can put a strain on your finances, and it can impact other people.

In the first place, smoking is bad for your lungs.  The smoke from cigarettes contains tar, which sticks to the cilia in our lungs.  The cilia act like tiny brooms that sweep out harmful dirt, but when you smoke cigarettes, the cilia can’t work because they’re covered in sticky tar.  That means that dirt can stayin the lungs and cause problems.  Did you know that most smokers die of lung cancer than any other disease?

It also effects your mouth, too.  Think about it as the location where the poison from the cigarettes gains access to the rest of you.  Since what you smoke passes through your teeth and your gums, your mouth is nicotine central- in a very bad way.  It destroys the appearance of your teeth by staining them and making your breath smell disgusting.  These are just some of the ways that smoking affects one’s oral health.

Finally, it can also affect your life span.  Did you know that a 30-year-old smoker can expect to live for 35 more years where a 30-year-old nonsmoker can expect to live for 53 more years? That’s crazy!!!  Those are just some of the aspects of smoking that affect your health.

In addition to having devastating affect’s on your health, smoking can put a strain on your finances.  The money wasted on cigarettes is a disgrace!  A 12 pack of cigarettes costs 10 to 13 dollars in Canada plus tax!  So let’s say you buy 3 packs of cigarettes a week and the pack costs 10 dollars, you’re wasting 56 dollars a month.  That’s 1,872 dollars a year!  That’s unacceptable!  Did you know that smoking costs the United States over $150 billion annually in health care costs?  That’s just like throwing money in the garbage for no good reason.  Instead of wasting your money on cigarettes, you could spend it on something important like a child’s education or a family vacation, or even you could donate it to charity because it’s valuable.  As you can see smoking is a total waste of money.  These are just some of the reasons why smoking can be a waste of money.

Finally, smoking should be illegal because it can impact other people.  When you smoke, it pollutes the air around you so if someone walks by, they will probably inhale the polluted air and it could cause serious problems.  This is called “Second Hand-smoke.” It is very bad for everyone around you when you smoke and it’s polluting the air.  Did you know that 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of diseases caused by exposure to second hand-smoke every year?  It also influences them to smoke because when someone walks by a smoker and sees them smoking they might not have learned about smoking, so they might want to try it out because, they don’t know it’s a horrible thing.  Then after they start smoking, they might tell other people to smoke and smoking might become common again!  Those are just some of the reasons why smoking can impact other people.

Essentially, smoking has devastating effects on one’s health, it can put a strain on your finances, and it can impact other people.  In conclusion, I think that smoking should be illegal and don’t forget that. So next time you see someone light up a cigarette, what will you say?