Topic

Position paper on Tobacco: Q & A session

Instructions

Is taxing cigarettes to inflate the price an effective method of discouraging young people from becoming smokers?
Smoking doesn’t impair performance on the job – indeed, the nicotine in cigarettes may actually facilitate short-term focus on the task at hand, particularly among those workers who are already addicted. That said, what grounds would an employer have for maintaining a strict code of non-use for his or her employees – both on and off the worksite? What aout patches or e-cigarettes? Should they be allowed in the workplace for those addicted to nicotine?
Does nicotine have any medical uses currently under investigation? If so, for what conditions is it being researched?
What’s behind the recent health warnings issued about electronic cigarettes? Are they dangerous, or could e-cigarettes serve as a nicotine-replacement therapy in the same way that methadone is used in treating heroin addiction?
It has been theorized that smoking rates will decrease as marijuana joints replace tobacco as a legal psychoactive. What do you think?
Are the risks of secondhand smoke as great as the public health and medical literature would have us believe?
Thinking globally, what is the situation outside of the U. S. as far as smoking trends are concerned?
There will always be a struggle between forces that want reform for the good of public health, and those that don’t support reforms that infringe on an individual’s right to choose their own destiny. How will this conflict ultimately play out with regards to tobacco use?
Are the penalties levied against tobacco companies being enforced? Are funds generated by legislation designed to penalize tobacco companies (lawsuits, taxes, etc.) being used for the purposes for which they were levied (counter-advertising, addiction treatment protocols, etc.)

Answer Preview

While cigarettes smoking is mainly discouraged due to many cancer-related effects of the main content nicotine, there is a growing body of knowledge indicating that nicotine has some therapeutic effects on the body. This content of cigarettes can be utilized in the treatment of various mental conditions like Parkinson’s disease (Lombardo & Maskos, 2015). Alternative methods like e-cigarettes enhance also been deemed to be equally dangerous and capable of causing cancer. This is as a result of the chemical that which they contain, making them carcinogenic.

Word Count: 550