The Goverment And Smoking Cessation
Running head: THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO MORE
The Government Can Do More to Aide in Smoking Cessation
LeAnn Fournier
Waynesburg University
Smoking has been a major problem in the United States for decades, by contributing to major health problems that are costly to treat and mostly end in death. For this reason, the government has passed legislation regarding smoking in the form of restrictions, education, and taxation. While this is an acceptable plan of attack in the road to smoking cessation, I believe that more can be done. If the government focused more on prevention, taxpayers’ dollars would be better utilized.
In 1996, nearly two million people began smoking on a daily basis and a vast majority of them were under the age of eighteen. In the past, programs such as the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program have been the sole preventative agent in schools nationwide. The focus of D.A.R.E. however was not specific to just smoking and incorporated other drugs like alcohol and marijuana. Also, as D.A.R.E. grew in popularity, it became gimmicky and watered down. States have seen this inefficiency of the D.A.R.E. program and have begun implementing smoking specific prevention programs. In California, a counteradvertising program showed marked success. It focused on the misleading claims and “deceptive practices undertaken by tobacco firms” (Government Programs, 2004). The government intervened though, and the program became less effective when the state legislature slashed its advertising budget from sixteen million dollars in 1991 to just over six-and-a-half million dollars in 1995. In-school programs have shown much success through repetition and when administered in a serious environment. Again however, budgets and standardized test mandates have taken precedence over programs geared toward social and personal responsibilities.
Funding is always the major...
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