Should tobacco companies be held responsible for smoking-related illnesses and deaths?
Because the tobacco industry knowingly sells a product that causes illness and death, they should be held responsible. Tobacco companies went from denying and covering up the negative effects associated with smoking, to admitting it caused disease and death, and due to that admission alone they should be held accountable.
Tobacco was first discovered by natives in both North and South America, and from there spread to European cultures, Asia and as far as Australia. It was a very integral part of the early slave trading, and became part of colonial America. Early in the 1600’s, colonial settlers started the first commercial tobacco plantations, and it continued to be a major source of income for early colonial farmers. This eventually ballooned into the multibillion-dollar modern tobacco industry, which still thrives in the South, where it all began hundreds of years before.
The government has almost always benefitted from the sale of tobacco. In the late 1800’s, taxes on tobacco paid to the IRS made up about one third of the …show more content…
In 1998, the four major US tobacco companies entered into an agreement called the “Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement” in order to satisfy existing Medicaid lawsuits, allowing for them to recoup tobacco related health care costs. This almost absolved them from future lawsuits and in return the tobacco industry would back off on their aggressive marketing campaigns. And to help fund future anti-smoking campaigns. This was just a way for them to forego taking responsibility, and it is time that changed. By settling with Medicaid, the tobacco industry again admitted that their product causes illness and death. With so many obvious admissions of guilt, it is time for a major change in tobacco legislation, if it should even be legal at
Because the tobacco industry knowingly sells a product that causes illness and death, they should be held responsible. Tobacco companies went from denying and covering up the negative effects associated with smoking, to admitting it caused disease and death, and due to that admission alone they should be held accountable.
Tobacco was first discovered by natives in both North and South America, and from there spread to European cultures, Asia and as far as Australia. It was a very integral part of the early slave trading, and became part of colonial America. Early in the 1600’s, colonial settlers started the first commercial tobacco plantations, and it continued to be a major source of income for early colonial farmers. This eventually ballooned into the multibillion-dollar modern tobacco industry, which still thrives in the South, where it all began hundreds of years before.
The government has almost always benefitted from the sale of tobacco. In the late 1800’s, taxes on tobacco paid to the IRS made up about one third of the …show more content…
In 1998, the four major US tobacco companies entered into an agreement called the “Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement” in order to satisfy existing Medicaid lawsuits, allowing for them to recoup tobacco related health care costs. This almost absolved them from future lawsuits and in return the tobacco industry would back off on their aggressive marketing campaigns. And to help fund future anti-smoking campaigns. This was just a way for them to forego taking responsibility, and it is time that changed. By settling with Medicaid, the tobacco industry again admitted that their product causes illness and death. With so many obvious admissions of guilt, it is time for a major change in tobacco legislation, if it should even be legal at