Texas should ban smoking

I am a heavy smoker. I’ve smoking since I was 16 (I lived in Germany and it was legal to smoke at the age of 16 back then). Smoking has been a problem for everyone, no matter if the person is a smoker or not. Despite all the problems that caused by smoking, it is surprisingly legal everywhere.

While I was going through a few editorials and commentaries with a cigarette on my left hand, the title, “Texas should ban smoking,” came up to me right away – it was quite ironic. The article was written by The Statesman’s editorial board. I was expecting some clever arguments. The writer started his introduction of the article with health issue and then quickly built on further with economic issue to support his idea of banning smoking in public places in Texas.

The writer did not give readers a solid evidence for health issue. He merely claimed that smoking is unhealthy and killed people. There are many other reasons for cause of deaths such as car accidents. Should vehicles be banned as well then? Not very convincing. However, I do totally agree with the idea of smoking being unhealthy – I mean, who doesn’t? Another question came to the next reason that the writer used. He put down the actual number of dollars that can be saved in health care by banning smoking, which was solid evidence apparently. But aren’t there other problems by banning smoking?

He mentioned the economic benefit and it might help balancing the budget without raising taxes. It was so naïve for the writer to neglect the tax revenue. In 2008, Texas’ tobacco tax revenue was $1446 million, and it has been increasing even more recently. (reference)

If a simple arithmetic is done (let’s say once the legislation is passed and tobacco sale has reduced by 3%, and this results over $40 million loss), banning smoking in public places will lose more than it can save in health care. Moreover, passing a legislation cannot just happen. There has to be a good number of reasons, and supports. As we know from the failed attempts to modify the Texas Constitution, reasons are not just enough.

I was not sure who the audience of the article was. Probably, it was aiming for both non-smokers and smokers. From my perspective, this article would fail to convince, especially smokers. It has contradicting and naïve reasons to back up the idea of banning smoking. Maybe suggesting separating non-smoking area and smoking area with some air-curtains would be a better idea.