World Governments Should Conduct Serious Campaigns

WorldGovernments Should Conduct Serious Campaigns against Smoking

　　If you smoke and you still don't believe that there's a definite link between smoking and bronchial troubles， heart disease and lung cancer， then you are certainly deceiving yourself. No one will accuse you of hypocrisy. Let us just say that you are suffering from a bad case of wishful thinking. This needn't make you too uncomfortable because you are in good company. Whenever the subject of smoking and health is raised， the governments of most countries hear no evil， see no evil and smell no evil.

　　You don't have to look very far to find out why the official reactions to medical findings have been so lukewarm. The answer is simply money. Tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. It's almost like a tax on our daily bread.

　　This is surely the most short-sighted policy you could imagine. While money is eagerly collected in vast sums with one hand， it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. Enormous amounts are spent on cancer research and on efforts to cure people suffering from the disease. Countless valuable lives are lost. In the long run， there is no doubt that everybody would be much better-off if smoking were banned altogether.

　　For a start， governments could begin by banning all cigarette and tobacco advertising and should then conduct antismoking advertising campaigns of their own. Smoking should be banned in all public places like theatres， cinemas and restaurants. Great efforts should be made to inform young people especially of the dire consequences of taking up the habit. A horrific warning——say， a picture of a death's head——should be included in every packet of cigarettes that is sold. As individuals we are certainly weak， but if governments acted honestly and courageously， they could protect us from ourselves.