It is now time to stop tobacco farming

In this blog I want to give you some information in regards to smoking. I know that the big deal is Vaping right now. I will be telling you the real story on Vaping that seems to be overlooked in the promotion of Vaping. Right now, we are going to talk about is what is happening to the smokers.

It has been known for many years that smoking harms every organ of the body. (1) What you may not know, is that 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.

This is a disease that is preventable and the leading cause of preventable death. How long can we keep looking way? The laws the government puts on the sale and use of tobaccos products is not working. The answer is simple, stop tobacco farming and put embargos on all imported tobacco and derivative products of tobacco (nicotine).

The loss of life here in the America is between 480,000 and 500,000 deaths per year, this including more than 41,000 deaths due to secondhand smoke exposure. The worldwide figures are very high. WHO (World Health Organization) says tobacco use will cause nearly 6 million deaths per year and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030 (2).

If you are a smoker, here are some of the diseases you can get: cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Emphysema and chronic bronchitis. That’s not all, smoking increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis. For the guys, smoking is a know cause of erectile dysfunction in males. Don’t you just wonder why tobacco is sold in the USA at all?

On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers. (3) If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today (1).

The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on cigarette and smokeless tobacco advertising and promotions. (4,5) In 2016, $9.5 billion was spent on advertising and promotion of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco combined. That works out to about $26 million every day, or more than $1 million every hour. Manufactures give price discounts to retailers account for 66.7% of all cigarette marketed. These are discounts paid in order to reduce the price of cigarettes smoking and costing the United States billions of dollars each year in taxes (1,6).

Total economic cost of smoking is more than $300 billion a year, including nearly $170 billion in direct medical care for adults. (6) Another $156 billion is attributed to lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke. (1)

State spending on tobacco prevention and control does not meet CDC-recommended level (1,7,8).

In fiscal year 2018, States will collect a record $27.5 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements but will spend less than 3%-on prevention and cessation programs (8). Currently just Alaska and California provide more than 90 percent of recommended funding. The rest of the states spend less than 20 percent of recommended levels except Connecticut and West Virginia who allocated no state funds for tobacco use prevention (8).

Thousands of young people start smoking cigarettes ever day. (1) Each day, more than3,200 people younger than 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette. Each day an estimated 2,100 youth and young adults who have been occasional smokers become daily cigarette smokers.

After reading this I think you can see that our system of control has failed. While the anti-smoking program that the government started a few year ago did have a good effect, but for the last couple of years the trend is back to smoking cigarettes. I know that there is a trend to Vaping but there is much more you need to know than just addition. I will be discussing it down the road, for now just don’t do it.

My answer to tobacco is simple, out law farming tobacco and put in place a total embargo on tobacco and tobacco product and derivatives (nicotine).

References

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking-50 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014(accessed 2018 Feb 22).

2. World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic.

2011 ( http://www.who.int/tobacco/global report/2011/en/index.html)

Geneva: World Health Organization,2011 (accessed 2018 Feb 22).

3. Jha P. Ramasundarahettige C, Landsman V, et al. 21st Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1211128).New England Journal of Medicine 2013;368;341-50 (accessed 2018 Feb 22).

4. Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for2016 (pdf-590kb) (http: www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reoorts/federal-trade-commission-cigarette-report-2016-federal-trade-commission-smokeless-tobacco-report/ftc_cigarette_report_for_2016).Washington: Federal Trade commission, 2018 (2018 (accessed 2018 Mar 30).

5. Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Smokeless Tobacco Report for2016 (PDF-632kb) (https://www.ftc.gov/documents/system/file/documents/reports/federal-trade-commission-cigarette-report-2016-federal-trade-commission-smokeless-tobacco-report/ftc_smokless_tobacco_report/ftc_smokless_tobacco_report_for_2016.pdf). Washington: Federal TradeCommission2018 (accessed 2018 Mar 30).

6. Xu X, Bishop EE, Kennedy SM, Simpson SA, Pechacek TF. Annual Healthcare Spending Attributable to Cigarette Smoking: An Update(http://www.aipmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(14)00616-3/fulltext). American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2014:48(3):326-333 (accessed 2018 Feb 22).

7. Center for Disease Control Prevention, Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program-2014. Atlanta. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 (accessed 2018 Feb 22).

8. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 19 Years Later (http.//www.tobaccofreekids.org/what-we do/us/statereport.). Campaign for Tobacco Fee Kids,2017 (accessed 2018 Feb 22).