Tobacco Lawsuit
"Quitting smoking now greatly reduces one's health risk" reads the surgeon's warning on a pack of Marlboro red cigarettes, yet people are still smoking everyday despite the surgeon's warning. For years the FDA, Food and Drug Administration, has tried to reduce the number of smokers each year by implementing higher taxes on cigarettes, regulating advertisement aimed at children, curbing the smoking age to eighteen years old, and banning cigarette vending machines. But none of these plans have done their job yet. Kids are starting to smoke at an early age despite higher taxes, peer and parent influence are replacing advertisements, and kids are finding other means of buying cigarettes instead of from vendors. Greg Little's "Suit has no basic in fact" opposes the Clinton administration lawsuit on tobacco, while the counter argument wants to take the court case to Congress. Both articles have strong and weak points, but Little's article is based more on opinion and has little evidence for its arguments. Little's argues that Congress should not interfere with the tobacco industries. Little tries to make the readers side with him in the opening statement when he say's "it's a shameless act of politics that reaches the height of hypo
The Clinton administration did the right thing by filing a lawsuit against tobacco companies. For the interest of the people, regulating tobacco companies and increasing the tax on cigarettes would be the first steps in prevention of nicotine addiction. According to the L.A Times September 14 edition, "cigarette sales have declined 29% in California since the January 1999 tax increase." Although the new proposed $1 increase in taxes would not completely prevent people from buying them, it would be a deterrent for potential buyers especially the teens who do not have a lot of income. By stopping teens from smoking at a young age, it would dramatically reduce the number of smokers in the nation since "most smokers begin smoking between the ages 13-17" according to Dr. Neil Kaufman. The money raised from the cigarette tax could be used on anti-tobacco advertising campaigns to further deter potential smokers. Also by giving the FDA more control on mandating nicotine substance, the public can become more aware of the dangers of smoking. The current Surgeon General's warnings are just not enough to scare people that it prevents them from smoking. More should be done on the FDA's part to try control the firms by regulating illegal activities such as advertisements aimed at youths. Although smokers will continue to smoke I strongly feel that this could be the first battle where tobacco industries will not profit from this. When Proposition 10 was approved last year in California allowing a 50-cent tax increase, $750 million dollars of those revenue was supposed to be allocated for early children development when in actuality not one penny has been spent on the program. Past history shows that the government will not always do what it claims, and only during election years, will officials propose cases that they do not implement to try to garner more votes during election year. crisy." He uses strong opinionated words to tell the readers that the lawsuit has no basis and he immediately attacks the Clinton administration describing them as shameless and their actions are hypocritical. By having the statement in the opening sentence, Little attempts to have to the readers side with him before any of the issues are presented. This ad hominem fallacy diverts the attention away from the problem at hand, which is the justification of the lawsuit on tobacco companies. He claims that the government has been unable to see the advances tobacco industries have made in the last thirty-five years. The government according to Little, has been "involved in virtually ever
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Approximate Word count = 1733
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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