North Carolina is one of America’s most profitable states. Is it because we have the greatest collegiate system in the world? Is it because we are first in flight? No, and no. North Carolina is America’s biggest tobacco producer, and has been for the past 7 years.
This, of course, has led to the manufacturing of many cigarettes here in our own state. 90% of adult tobacco users in North Carolina began before the age of 18. In fact, as studies done by North Carolina Crime Control indicate, the average age adult smokers begin is 13.
It is no secret what cigarettes do to a person physically. In fact, smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our country. The average chain smoker doesn’t make it past 48. Smoking tobacco can cause many forms of cancer, most prominently being lung cancer and mouth cancer.
Notably, the physical effects of cigarettes are far worse than illegal drug marijuana.
Cigarettes affect you mentally. Normally, people do not associate cigarettes with mental issues, but they should. During a smoker’s first couple weeks of trying to quit, they will be extremely moody, and won’t be able to make rash decisions.
This is because the nicotine, or the drug that makes you chemically addicted, attaches to the smokers brain, and makes the smoker feel as if he/she needs the cigarettes.
A cigarette is a compilation of many dangerous ingredients, including: tar, which you find on roads; arsenic, used in rat poison; and poisonous gas carbon monoxide.
WIth the evidence above, and much more, there is no logical reason that cigarettes are legal, except for perhaps the economic boost they give our state.
What kind of message is that sending young children who are forced to breathe in the secondhand smoke from their parents who cannot shake the nicotine out of their system? After all, secondhand smoke is a major cancer-causing agent.
Is money more important than our health or our environment’s health? With the continued legality of cigarettes, it seems so.
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