Cedar Hill Prep School

Assertion: Will lead to a rise in black market activity !

Reasoning: It is human nature to find a way and bend the rules. If we make cigarettes illegal, smokers will find some loophole to get their cigarettes illegally. This will promote and fund the black market even more!

Evidence: Smokers will do anything to find an alternative to the situation. Cigarettes have additives and ingredients like nicotine, that make cigarettes more addictive. Addictive smokers want cigarettes so they'll find a way. They might smuggle them into the U.S. If cigarettes are not made illegal, smokers wouldn't even get the idea of smuggling them. It is not how humans usually think.

Assertion: Making cigarettes illegal will put jobs at risk.

Reasoning: Making cigarettes illegal would be sacrificing the jobs of all the tobacco farm workers in the south and reducing the government's yearly revenue by a lot.

Evidence: According to the USDA, there are approximately 90,000 tobacco leaf farms in the U.S. These farms not only sustain the lives of millions, but provide a significant amount of revenue for the government. According to the New York Times, about 19 billion dollars have been collected by the U.S government from cigarette taxes. If we ban cigarettes, you would be sacrificing the lives of millions while diminishing the government's ability to better our communities and public areas. Would you rather have a couple hundred thousand people die from smoking or millions die because they can't support themselves financially? And, since cigarettes are not being purchased as much as before, not as many people are dying. We don't need to make cigarettes illegal. Doing so would just promote chaos.