The Influence Of Cigarettes

“Tobacco has been growing wild in the Americas for nearly 8000 years. Around 2,000 years ago tobacco began to be chewed and smoked during cultural or religious ceremonies and events,” (Cancer Council). While smoking has been around for centuries, cigarettes weren’t invented until the late 1800s. The first cigarette-making machines produced about 200 cigarettes every minute; today’s machines produce as many as 9,000 cigarettes every minute. (Cancer Council). Cheap mass production and the use of cigarette advertising gave tobacco companies the ability to expand their markets during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Imagine what the demand is in today’s economy for cigarettes if machine can produce 9,000 per minute. Although the tobacco industries

Especially from younger people. It is so easy to obtain Cigarettes and chewing tobacco it’s scary. All you need is a close friend or even a parental figure that doesn 't give any notice to how wrong this actually is. “Each day, more than 3,200 people under 18 smoke their first Cigarette, and approximately 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers” (“Tobacco Facts and Figures”). This is absolutely mind blowing. It’s horrible to think that kids under the age of 18 are starting something that is so hazardous to their health. Starting young only makes it harder to stop when your older. When you start young, the amount of tobacco you use a day begins to build up. This is why you see and or hear about people who just cannot quit. They started young and when they got older they ended up buying one to two packs to last them just one day. This is another reason why cigarettes are so influential in our economy. Approximately 18% of high school students nowadays smoke cigarettes. In 2011, nearly 18% of high school boys smoked cigars (“Tobacco Facts and Figures.”). This piece of information proves how dangerous tobacco exposure can be. These high schoolers who continue to smoke are only damaging themselves as well as making cigarette companies wealthier. It would be great if the laws regarding underage smoking were better enforced, for it could help save lives. Since 1964, more than 20 million Americans have died due