Persuasive Essay About Smoking Research Paper

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"Smoking is like having a broken burglar alarm. You don 't know the burglar has been there until all your things are stolen," (http://www.altoonafp.org/special_analogies.htm, section 6) Smoking is a topic that has been debated about for a long time. People have the opinion that it has negative influences on the body, on the economy, and on the environment. Smokers believe that it is not that big of a deal. This nasty habit effects everyone on this planet in some way or form.
To begin with, having one cigarette is like having a million. First and foremost, when a smoker starts this habit they cannot stop; it becomes an addiction. Others may argue that its is not, and that if they wanted they could stop anytime, but can they really? A
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Buying cigarettes can put a major dent on one 's wallet. The average Canadian can spend about $168 for 200 cigarettes (https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/smoking-the-financial-cost, section 1), which is the average usage in a fortnight, resulting in a grand total of $6 888 per year. According to the Ontario 's Ministry of Finance, the tax of cigarettes increase by 2% every year, which many not seem like a lot but it all mounts up in the end. As of February 26th the tax on one cigarette is 15.47 cents, and on a whole pack between $3-$4, depending on pack size. Many smokers may go into debt because of this major cost, depending on their salary. All smokers spend over a quarter of their money on cigarettes, the remaining on the actual necessities of life, such as, food, clothing, etc. You would thing that, today, given many financial problems people have that they would try to cut off loose ends, like this, and spend that money on things that matter and benefit ones life versus the deadly cigarettes they waste their money on. The production of cigarettes is another massive cost on the economy. The tobacco industry is one of the wealthiest in the world. It costs about $21 for one pack of cigarette, but it the actual production of one is only 6 cents (Brooke, Section 7). Annually, these companies will receive over a 99% profit. If you think about it, …show more content…
Everyone has a right to their opinion because everything has two sides, as long as they are backed up with reliable and true evidence. Some believe that there are positive effects to smoking as well as negative. Such as, a decreased risk in many medical problems, like Parkinson’s disease and obesity. This is true but in the long haul there are more negative than positive effects. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” (Star Trek, Spock). We need to look at the bigger picture, which is that smoking doesn’t just harm smokers (the few), but also everyone and everything (the many) and in order to protect “the many” we need to eliminate “the few”. But if we carry on the way we have been, yes, there will be a decline in some problems, like obesity and Parkinson 's but an incline in cancers, money problems, environmental issues, etc. Which shows that long term issues of smoking are the ones that should be our priority to fix and focus on than short

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