Cigarettes - this is off my usual topic, but I thought I'd try it

I mean look, we all know its bad for you, right??  Smoking, I mean?  Not only is it bad for the smoker himself, it is bad for everyone in a room with him.  It is bad because of the increased costs to society.  The demands on the health system, the absenteeism from work, the extra painting and air cleaning required to clean up the mess, the list could go on and on. 

Why are we still allowing it?? Probably because the entire economy of my state would collapse if suddenly they stopped growing tobacco, millions of addicts would suffer withdrawal.  The costs to society of that scene would of course be worse than continuing as things as they are. 

But what about this idea?  The legal age to buy cigarettes now is eighteen.  What would happen if next year it were nineteen and the year after that twenty, and so on.  In fifty years you would have to be sixty-five to buy cigarettes and in one hundred, no one alive would be permitted.  This would allow all current addicts to die off.  It would allow all those whose livelihood depends on growing tobacco and producing and selling cigarettes to either die off or find a new career.  Kids would be less likely to start because of limited access and because the message of how harmful smoking is would have been heard loud and clear. By that time, the benefits to society would be tremendous.  Oh I know, people could still import tobacco products from other countries and they could still get older people to buy for them.  But sooner or later, the number of addicts would surely dwindle and eventually I do believe it would nearly die off at some point.  In the meantime, many lives would be saved and the horrendous cost to society would have been saved. 

The cost of this program??  Very simple.  Now in the stores there is posted a sign that you must have been born before today's date in such and such a year to purchase cigarettes. All that would have to change is that the stores NOT change those dates at the beginning of each year.