Tobacco News and Interesting Information

I feel strongly that the government should outlaw tobacco completely and that it should not be putting profit before health. But I do not agree that just because the illegal cigarette trade is booming, the government should lower taxes on tobacco products, thereby implying that it's OK to smoke, as argued in Christina Blizzard's column "High tobacco taxes fuel booming illegal cigarette trade" (Feb. 11).

Blizzard argues that "if governments were truly committed to our health, they would outlaw tobacco outright," yet she also insists that the government should lower tobacco taxes to combat the illegal cigarette trade. Is that not a step in the wrong direction? Is it not saying, yes, go ahead and smoke?

Illegal cigarettes are always going to be cheaper because there are no taxes on them. If people are getting their cigarettes from illegal sellers, they aren't going to go back to buying from stores just because stores slightly reduce their prices.

When people are paying to kill themselves by buying cigarettes, I don't believe that illegal cigarettes are any more harmful than "regulated" cigarettes. Both have ingredients such as formaldehyde (which causes lung cancer), carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas), arsenic, ammonia (used in cleaning products) and other carcinogenic compounds.

My point is, how do tobacco companies "regulate" what goes into the cigarettes when most of the ingredients are harmful, if not deadly? What do they consider dangerous if these are the kinds of things that go into cigarettes in the first place?

If the government lowers taxes, making cigarettes cheaper, then anyone who is not buying illegal cigarettes would be able to afford to buy more legal cigarettes. This would be worse for their health. Therefore, the government would be putting profit before the health of citizens yet again. This wasn't even mentioned in Blizzard's column. The column did not address the problem in the least.

We should not be moving backward by having government say it's OK to smoke as long as you buy legal cigarettes. Smoking should be illegal, but the government makes too much money from tobacco taxes to do that. Lowering taxes and causing more health problems would be worse than the illegal cigarette trade.