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Smoking Ban Debate

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The Smoking Ban Debate Smoking, a hot button issue that has gained momentum is on the verge of exploding. Smoking bans are the current answer to the growing backlash from the general public over second hand smoke, a controversial action which brings the subject of individual rights to the forefront. Tobacco use has been debated for hundreds of years, with the medical field describing tobacco use as a “deadly narcotic” as early as 1853. With momentum gaining a pinnacle, regulations implementing and enforcing smoking bans are widespread, with oppositions position that these bans impose on individual rights. David Hudson wrote “The Department of Justice once stated smoking as the single leading cause of death in the United States”. An author/ research attorney who specializes in First Amendment rights, his book, Smoking Bans, widely discusses the impact that smoking bans have protecting public health, while some believe it infringes on individual rights. Key issues surround the debate that revolve around individual choice, social responsibility, and governmental power, and with the issues bring a wide variety of interests. A 2000 lawsuit Supreme Court ruled the Food and Drug Administration was not allowed to regulate tobacco as a drug. To many, this seemed like a logical solution to a smoking culture glamorized by Hollywood in the 1950’s into the 1070’s. To others, it would have ineffective results as the Liquor Prohibition proved to be in earlier years. The Institute on Medicine Committee on Reducing Tobacco Use, in its publishing Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for a Nation, references a 1964 US Department of Health report. This report linked smoking to lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema. It stated “after this publication the public debate over smoking could never be divorced from its documented adverse health

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