First let me start off by saying that the choice to smoke is yours and yours alone. Everyone has
            
             their own freedom of choice to start smoking or never smoke at all. I am highly against the idea
            
             but I nor anyone else can make you smoke or make you stop smoking. With that in mind
            
             here is some things you probably don't know about tobacco. It causes nearly one of
            
             every five deaths in the United States(source: www.cdc.gov.). It causes over 400,000 deaths
            
             every year. This means smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes,
            
             murders, suicides, and fires combined. That is a very convincing statement of why not to start
            
             smoking. What is even more convincing than that is... every day nearly 3,000 people under the
            
             age of eighteen become regular smokers.
            
             How can you even think about smoking? If it doesn't kill you it will make you unhealthy
            
             at the very least. Here is a statement to back up my opinion. An estimated 48 million adults in
            
             the United States smoke cigarettes. Half of these people will die or have a disability. These
            
             disabilities include chronic disease, lung cancer, as well as cancer to the cervix and larynx.
            
             Then there is the economic issues. Not only on yourself but also our nation. First off the
            
             the average cost of one pack of cigarettes is over two dollars and an average smoker has three to
            
             four packs a week. Start adding all these up and you're spending hundreds of dollars a year.
            
             The use of tobacco costs the U.S more than fifty billion dollars in medical expenditures. It also
            
             now well documented that there is more than 40 chemicals in tobacco that can cause death.
            
             There is only one in rat poison, I repeat , only one! I have had family members and friends die
            
             from smoking. Even when
            
             there are told it will kill them , they still continue to smoke. What is the reasoning behind this??!!
            
             My mind is bogg...