"There Should be Stricter Smoking Laws" Overall good essay discussing the pros of stricter smoking and tobacco laws.

Did you know that 430,700 Americans die each year from diseases caused by smoking? Well, the United States government spends $97.2 billion on health-care costs and loss productivity, from cigarette smoking. This money could be spent on better things like education. That's why there should be stricter smoking laws. With the help of these laws, it would be harder for adolescents to obtain, will make the environment less polluted, and it will make more people quit. Also, the death rates, caused by tobacco will decrease severely. There should be stricter tobacco laws and regulations!

First of all, at least 4.5 million adolescents are smoking. Most of them would like to quit, but they can't. Why is this? This is because, for some teens, it is easy to obtain cigarettes. Even though the age to start buying tobacco is 18, places that sell cigarettes haven't started to check ID's until August of 1996.

English: Smoking any tobacco product, %, Females

English: Smoking any tobacco product, %, Males

Dunhill Early Morning Pipe Tobacco, 1990's Murray

Also, if there were larger punishments to those who give cigarettes to underaged adolescents, the teens wouldn't be able to get cigarettes from their relatives, or friends. Peer pressure has been a large reason for smoking cigarettes. Over 4,800 adolescents (11-17) smoke their first cigarette each day. Almost 2,000 of them will be regular smokers, which equals up to 730,000 new smokers each year. One-third of these teens will die from a smoking-related illness. Now the teens that were peer pressured then became hooked and may end up dying because of it. The Amerian Lung Association's Teenage Tobacco Use Fact Sheet said, "It [tobacco] is generally the first drug used by young people who enter a sequence of drug use that can include tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and harder drugs." The US government and the individual states try to stop people from using illegal drugs, but if young...