Smoking should be illegal because tobacco products can be very damaging to health, they can induce various health problems, including cancer, heart attacks, and obesity.
In 2000, 4,83 million deaths were attributed to cigarette smoking globally. In people over age 30, smoking accounts for one in every five deaths among men and one in every 20 deaths among women globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that approximately 5.4 million people died worldwide from tobacco-related illnesses in 2006 and says that “unless urgent action is taken, tobacco’s annual death toll will rise to more than eight million by the year 2030”.
Smoking also causes many dangerous illnesses and diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Additionally, smoking increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases; and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis. In U.S.A, for every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.
Some people think that smoking does not have bad effects on health and claim that it has benefits such as reducing stress, helping people relax and concentrate. They also think that genetic predisposition is more impactful in causing problems for one’s health. However, the former mentioned studies totally contradict this opinions and show that the damaging effects of smoking on health is beyond these opinions.
Being addicted to drugs, after knowing all the dangers of smoking, and through my own experience, I would do anything to quit and I think that smoking should be illegal because most of smokers especially in Morocco start smoking at an early age and they don’t know its serious effects.
Mohamed Ilyas Ettaqi
Semester3, Department of English Studies
Chouaib Doukkali University -El Jadida
