Cigarettes are one of the addictive drugs that have dangerous effects to the smokers and society in general. Many people argue that the government should intervene to control the use of tobacco. However, this is not justifiable. This research will support the fact that government should not intervene to reduce the cigarette market (Taylor, 7).
Looking at the revenues generated from the sale of cigarettes, reducing the market will lead to welfare loss to the society. This is because revenues will be lost if the market is recued and hence less funds will be available to the government to implement public projects. This will reduce the total welfare in the economy.
Reducing the cigarette market will interfere with the right of choice of the people who consume the product. They may then engage in use of other dangerous drugs such as marijuana. These drugs may affect them more than the cigarettes (Taylor, 21).
Intervention to reduce cigarette market will not be effective. The use of tobacco will not reduce but smuggling of the product will increase instead. The government will lose more since it will lose revenues, incur the costs of avoiding smuggling, and incur the costs of reducing the market.
People start using cigarettes when young and this makes it difficult to stop its use at old age. This is because the drug is addictive in nature. Making the people stop using the drug would mean high costs to the government. The best alternative is to teach people the dangers of using the drug. When children become aware of the dangers of using the drug, they make the decision of not abusing the drug. Otherwise, trying to make people stop using cigarettes is not practical considering that it is addictive (Taylor, 93).
In conclusion, it is widely accepted that cigarettes have negative effects to the people and society in general. However, trying to reduce the market of cigarettes has negative effects to the economy. It is also impractical.
References.
Taylor, John B, and Akila Weerapana. Principles of Economics. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
