If smoking kills so many people each year. why isn't it made illegal?

Answer 1

Driving kills a lot of people each year too...wanna ban that?

Answer 2

The federal government could (and should, imo) make smoking illegal. However, there are a few reasons it isn't.

The smoking lobby is an unbelievably powerful and rich group. They would be willing to put all their impressive force against killing an attempt to make smoking illegal.

Politicians won't support something as unpopular as a ban on smoking would be. Why would it be unpopular?

Some politicians (who would be voting on the issue) smoke. Why would they want to get rid of it?

Many citizens smoke - these people would be against it, of course, and would let their representatives know about it.

People who don't smoke don't care nearly as much about a ban as those who do, so many wouldn't contact their government representatives, even if they do support making smoking illegal.

Others, such as hard-line conservatives and especially libertarians, are against government assuming that much power over the behaviors of the citizens. They would be against it, even if they hate smoking.

Even if it did pass, enforcement would be very difficult, as you would have a massive black market for cigarettes, especially over the internet. Also, some police officers smoke - how hard are they going to persue reports of smoking?

It's a nice idea, but a political impossibility...

Answer 3

Several reasons
1) tobacco lobby is very powerful
2) lots of jobs in tobacco industry - it doesn't look good for politicians to be putting hundreds out of work in their states or constituencies
3) the government gets a huge amount of revenue from tobacco sales. In the UK smoking related illness costs the health service £1.5Bn at year- but the government gets £9Bn a year in revenue - do the maths.

Answer 4

Nobody should ever have the right to tell you what you can do with your body or what you put into your body unless you are mentally unfit to take care of yourself. Otherwise the government needs to stay out of our personal lives. Even eating the wrong foods kills. Everything is a money thing when it comes down to the government.

Answer 5

That's kind of illogical. Should we ban everything that kills? Do you think that people growing up today don't know what the dangers of smoking are? If they still want to do it, why should the government spend money stopping them? All you can do is warn them.

Oh speaking of warnings, this just in: life kills.

Answer 6

driving a car is a necessity. smoking is addictive. what a lousy analogy. anyway i smoke sometimes and im happy that my country allows me to smoke nevertheless i feel that the government should at least control the amount of cigarettes sold to the public. they should have a say on it theyre the government for christ's sake. smoking really is dangerous to your health and a lot of people who like to believe that they're in complete control of their habit are morons. ofcourse theyre addicted and being such they need help. have a nice day

Answer 7

First 2 answers above are incorrect but commonly assumed.

The real answer is we live in a free country where people are expected to watch out for themselves.

Same reason cars aren't banned, they kill more people than cigarettes.

Answer 8

Too much money being made by tobacco companies and especially by the government in taxes. I think the gov't is very hypocritical - they want to slap down smokers with one hand and take money out of their pocket with the other!!!

Answer 9

because just imagine if everyone in the USA didn't buy a pack off cigarettes or tobacco of any kind for one day then think of how much money the states would lose from taxes and that's why its legal

Answer 10

The government gets revenue from taxing cigerettes, the gov't won't give up the revenue.They know they can't make them illegalbecause I think a black market would just replace legal sales.