Cedar Hill Prep School

Hi, My name is Megha Thomas and I do NOT believe that cigarettes should be made illegal for these two reasons.

1. Assertion: In today's society, such a goal would be extremely difficult to implement.

Reasoning: There are many obstacles in the way of banning cigarettes.

Evidence: Barriers to passing such a ban include the power of big tobacco companies and the cost of enforcing such a law.

2. Assertion: The people won’t be happy

Reasoning: Banning cigarettes could lead to a number of disastrous things

Evidence: Modern history suggests that such a measure could lead to disastrous consequences such as the Drug War. From black market activity to lost revenue and from a divisive constituency to the disappearance of an industry, tobacco prohibition could actually do more harm than good in the long run. This will just encourage smuggling, organized crime, and yet another failed war on drugs. Prohibition of cigarettes has already been tried and failed. Also, banning cigarettes will be horrible for the economy, as it makes a lot of money from cigarette sales.

Thank you, my name is Megha Thomas, and hence the opposition side has won this debate.

Hi, My name is Megha Thomas and I believe that cigarettes should be made illegal for these three reasons.

1. Assertion: Cigarettes are horrible for people’s health.

Reasoning: They cause so many deaths and health problems. The cigarette is also a defective product, meaning not just dangerous but unreasonably dangerous, killing half its long-term users. And it’s addictive by design.

Evidence: approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year and are smoked by over 1.1 billion people or greater than one-sixth of the world population. Cigarettes kill about 6 million people every year, a number that will grow before it shrinks. Tobacco is public enemy No. 1 in preventive illness. A study published on Jan. 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that smoking takes at least 10 years off a person's life.

2. Assertion: Financial Burdens

Reasoning: There are financial burdens on public and private treasuries, principally from the costs of treating illnesses due to smoking. Cigarette use also results in financial losses from diminished labor productivity, and in many parts of the world makes the poor even poorer.

Evidence: Costs include indirect costs related to workday losses due to morbidity and direct costs associated with inpatient and outpatient care. Non-smokers also pay for the costs of smoking, primarily in the form of higher health insurances and medical costs related to secondhand smoke, leading to higher taxes and higher prices for healthcare products and services. Tobacco-related deaths result in lost economic opportunities. In the US, these losses are estimated at US$92 billion a year. Tobacco-related diseases result in lost income tax and social security contributions, which put a heavy economic burden on society.

3. Assertion: Cigarettes do more harm than harming people’s health

Reasoning: Apart from reducing human suffering, abolishing the sale of cigarettes would result in increased labor productivity, lessened harms from fires, reduced consumption of scarce physical resources, and a smaller global carbon footprint.

Evidence: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, smokers are more likely to absent from work than non-smokers. But even if you never miss a day, smoke breaks will cut into your productivity. The cigarette industry is a powerful corrupting force in human civilization. Tobacco companies have bullied, corrupted or exploited countless other institutions: the American Medical Association, the American Law Institute, sports organizations, fire-fighting bodies, Hollywood, the US Congress—even the US presidency and US military.

Nearly 50 percent of Americans would like to see cigarettes made illegal. It is possible to ban cigarettes. Congress holds that power. The legal framework to declare tobacco a controlled substance is certainly under the constitutional purview of the United States. It is not in principle difficult to end the sale of cigarettes; most communities–even small towns–could do this virtually overnight. We actually have more power than we realize to put an end this, the world's leading cause of death and disease.

Thank you, my name is Megha Thomas, and hence the proposition side has won this debate.