A smokers choice

A year an estimated 17,000 people die from AIDS, and another 75,766 people died from Alcohol related injuries.  That's a total of 92,000 people a year which still does not exceed the number of deaths from Cigarettes which is a whopping 443,000 people in the U.S has died from smoking cigarettes.  After seeing the comparisons in these numbers I had to ask myself, Why do the still allow cigarettes to be sold legally?  It appears to me that the country is more concerned with making money than it is protecting people from such a terrible living.  So many get addicted to cigarettes and so much money on this addiction it's ridiculous.  What makes things worst is that cigarettes has the most addictive ingredient in the world nicotine.  Since we all know what it does and how it does it, is it wrong for people to want to market against it.  We know and met so many people in our lives that smoke, and most of us that don't always asks why.  It's hard for me to understand how people know what cigarettes do to your body, but still continue to purchase them.  I grew up in a home as a kid that was always around cigarette smokers, to the point where my clothes would smell like cigarette smoke when I went to school.  It's funny how your mindset changes when you realize something that you been around almost all your life is really bad for you.  Right now I tell anyone I see smoking cigarettes that they shouldn't be smoking them, just so that I know that I gave it a shot to let someone know about the dangers of smoking.  I think one of the biggest things we can do as people is to help our younger generations avoid smoking cigarettes.  I've read somewhere that they did a study on how cigarette companies purposely promote cigarettes more in urban communities, because they feel like minorities are their biggest consumers.  Is it fair that these companies get to promote and highly addictive and dangerous product in stores low enough for any kid to see?  In some cases they go as far is to put the promotions on walls near the candy sections, and this is all done to promote to a younger age.  They promote to the younger generation because they realize it's so addictive that if they can get someone to start smoking as a teen, then they can keep them as adults.  At the rate people are dying from cigarettes it's important that we teach younger generations to stay away, even if it causes us to have to promote cigarette awareness at schools.  It's funny how we run anti sex and safer sex campaigns to help young people avoid catching AIDS and all type of commercial for people to avoid drinking and driving but not many to stop smoking cigarettes.   Whether you smoke or know someone who smokes, please find help because the you do not want to be a statistic to something that is only a promotion of death.