How to reduce smoking in america - Essay Example

Cigarettes also come with huge financial implications to the smokers and their families; for instance, with a pack of cigarettes costing about 10$ in some areas, a pack per day smokers spent a whopping $3,650 in a year. In this regard, cigarette smoking not only leads to catastrophic health risks, it also comes with huge financial ramifications to the smokers and the American society in general. America should actively reduce smoking for the good of everyone as this is likely to have more benefits to the people such as improved health and financials.

This paper will focus on how America can reduce smoking as a health hazard, to improve the health of its citizenry and to make America a better place for future generations. America has been traditionally engaged with the task of merely reducing preventable deaths through cigarette smoking especially in recognition of the fact that it cannot be stopped entirely. So much has been done already, but still there is yet a lot to be achieved in that new cigarette addicts emerge every day in America.

One of the major strategies that can work in America is the controversial cigarettes’ tax hike, which has a high potential of lowering the smoking rates in America. According to a research by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, there was a considerable drop in cigarette sales in 2009 after a 62-cent hike per pack was passed (Hargreaves); if this trend is anything to go by, then it means that a tax hike on cigarettes can have substantial public health benefits. Recently, president Obama’s proposal to affect a 94-cent per pack hike on cigarettes stirred a lot of debate with anti-smoking groups in support of the move against some tax experts and tobacco companies.

The tax has been designed as a way of cutting smoking rates and a source of income for educational programmes across America; a cigarette free society would definitely make America a better place to live. The other approach that America should quickly adopt in order to reduce smoking is to fund tobacco control programs that aim to limit smoking of cigarettes in America. A much disturbing revelation is that many US-state governments have not prioritized the task of reducing cigarette smoking in their expansive programs.

According to Reuters, many US-state governments receive huge sums of money from tobacco sales and legal settlements with cigarette makers, but only a little is spent on funding programs that can help people reduce and quit smoking altogether (Gray). Anti-tobacco media campaigns can be another effective way of reducing smoking in America as this will raise awareness on the dangers of cigarettes to the public and the health benefits associated with reduced smoking. For instance, more aggressive approaches such as uncompromising graphic admonition on cigarette packages can be very effective on discouraging cigarette smoking; however, despite that this rule has been implemented in many countries around the world, as has been maintained in the US federal courts (Daynard).

This is largely because it is feared that the advertising may infringe on the manufacturers First Amendment rights thus cigarettes are still tolerated in American societies while the courts hesitate. Cigarette manufacturers would rather safeguard their profits at the expense of the unsuspecting public and as such would want nothing to jeopardize their trade in the