Americans Now Want Cigarettes Banned - CDC

WASHINGTON - Feb. 2, 2023 - PRLog -- Apparently for the first time in recent history, a majority of Americans favor banning not only the sale of cigarettes, but also of all tobacco products, according to a just released survey.

Furthermore, an even larger percentage wants menthol cigarettes banned, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf, "The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials."

According to a just released CDC survey, 57.3% of respondents supported a policy to prohibit the sale of all tobacco products, while 62.3% of adults supported a policy to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes.

The movement for a total ban is growing rapidly.  As recently as 2018, only 1 in 4 adults said that smoking should be made totally illegal in the U.S.  The measure had previously garnered between 11% and 24% support over the nearly three decades that Gallup has been tracking it.

Banzhaf, who started the movement to ban smoking in an ever growing number of public places and workplaces, and has been called "The Law Professor Who Masterminded Litigation Against the Tobacco Industry," says there are several reasons for this growing support for an policy which was once ridiculed by the tobacco industry as "prohibitionist."

FIRST - Perhaps the most important is the growing recognition that secondhand tobacco smoke kills (over 41,000 Americans annually), disables, and otherwise damages the heath of those unfortunate enough to be around a smoker, including innocent children.  As the New York Times reported "at least 6,200 children die each year in the United States because of their parents' smoking."  So the great majority of Americans have a strong interest in the protecting their own health, as well as the health of children and other nonsmokers. . . .

So a ban on the sale of tobacco products would save more lives than virtually any other single governmental action, save more money for taxpayers and for the economy than virtually any other measure, and have numerous other benefits.

Meanwhile, those most likely to object are mostly poor people whose deadly habit is heavily subsidized by the objecting majority. and who have little political or other influence, suggests Banzhaf.

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