In Britain, there are many people who suffer from lung cancer, and smokers have the chance to choose if they want to go down this road. But many smokers are addicted to cigarettes, because of the nicotine inside them. This makes it much harder to stop smoking, if they try to quit. Won’t banning cigarettes make it easier for addicts to quit, as it would be harder to get hold of cigarettes? Well this may be the case, but countless problems stand in the way of banning cigarettes, which follows. I have imagined the impact if the cigarette ban was introduced.
There are about 12 million adult cigarette smokers in Great Britain and another 3 million who smoke pipes and/or cigars. This means over a fifth of adults in Britain smoke, and it would incredibly disgruntle them if smoking was banned. They would almost definitely cause a lot of difficulty, and object to the ban strongly. Also people who are trying to give up smoking, gradually cutting down on cigarettes each day, would be demoralised at their efforts, and wouldn’t be able to cope going from 20 plus cigarettes a day to nothing. There are about 11 million exsmokers in Britain, and I’m sure most of them managed to quit, by cutting down smoking gradually.
The police would have a large problem on their hands if tobacco was banned, because the current drugs situation in Britain is bad enough as it is, without another popular drug against the law. Without a doubt their will be a massive demand for cigarettes after a ban would be introduced, and many people would lower themselves to the limits of smuggling tobacco into the country, or growing it themselves. This would make a large problem for the police, as most of the 15 million smokers in Britain would be illegally smoking tobacco. The police force would not be able to seize all the tobacco. I know this because the police haven’t managed to stop the amount of cannabis or ecstasy in the country, so I very much doubt they would be able to cope with the tobacco ban.
The third main problem would be the economy. There are hundreds of thousands of people working in the cigarette industry, and many people’s future depends on it. Cigarette companies would have to shut down, causing a massive loss in immediate profit, and the cigarette company itself would have to make all its employees redundant. They would have to pay their employees a certain sum of money, if they are made redundant. Also the company would lose whatever value it had. Without a doubt the companies themselves would suffer most, and many would end up bankrupt. Many jobs would be lost, and the unemployment figures in Britain would increase significantly. These unemployed people would probably claim benefits, and this would cause the tax rate to increase. Would you like an increase in tax, because of a ban on tobacco?
To summarise the problems, it seems like the government would suffer most. As they would introduce the ban, no less than 15 million people would be aggravated at this. Then the cigarette companies would be disgruntled, as they would have to pay out to the employees, and they would lose their business. The employees would be infuriated at loosing their jobs, and would claim unemployment benefits. The benefits would cause a tax increase, and the public would have to pay the extra tax. They wouldn’t be too happy either. It seems like the whole country would oppose to the ban, and maybe go on strike, and cause an economical standstill. The government would be left with the unfortunate role of sorting the problems they created themselves.
From my view I think that smoking is very unhealthy and carries many health and addiction risks, but it shouldn’t be illegalised. Essentially because banning tobacco comes with many consequences, which I have stated. It should be people’s own choice if they wish to jeopardise their health. Research shows that the percentage of people smoking has fell, and continues to fall, so maybe in the future tobacco wouldn’t need to be banned, as everyone will eventually quit. I feel that more encouragement should be given to people, who aim to quit, and health affects of smoking should be educated to everyone.
