Addicted Until Death
It is Easter Sunday, and your whole family gathers together for a wonderful meal. This is one of the few times each year you get to see all of your aunts, uncles, cousins, and nephews. A special occasion such as this would be perfect if it weren't for that gray cloud looming overhead. It is an actual gray cloud of smoke. No, mom didn't burn the turkey; it's cigarette smoke. Most of your family members are smoking. Despite your great aunt's recent struggle with lung cancer, your loved ones continue filling the room with that disgusting carcinogen. It isn't because they don't realize the dangers of smoking, but because they simply can not stop. Cigarette smoking is very addictive and many people have little power to quit. If people can not remove this demon themselves, I call upon the government to remove it for them. Since 1964, we have known that cigarette smoking is a cause of cancer and other serious diseases, yet hundreds of thousands of Americans still die each year because of tobacco-related illnesses (CDC 1). Lung cancer, which is responsible for over 400,000 deaths each year, is the number-one cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States. Greater than ninety percent
Environmental tobacco smoke, second hand smoke, is responsible for over fifty thousand deaths every year (Grannis). These deaths should be classified as murders. Smokers are involuntarily killing their loved ones and themselves, but they cannot seem to stop. Only seven percent of smokers who determine that they want to quit are successful long-term (2). This addiction is primarily due to the nicotine in cigarettes. It has been proven by numerous studies that nicotine is addictive; therefore, people really have no control over their problem. Something must be done to release the power that cigarettes have over the American people. By outlawing cigarettes, we solve the smoking problem in our society. Our youth would be safe from the harms of this killer drug. Money that the government spends on treating lung cancer could be put toward a better cause in the future. American people could live longer, healthier lives. Smoking is just a sign of our predecessors' ignorance to the effects of drugs; if we truly are a more sophisticated society, we should have no problem ridding ourselves of this outdated form of euphoria. Why not kill the addiction before it kills us? "Tobacco Control Milestones." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 5 March 2000.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 975
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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