Opinion Essay - David Martínez

Should the government ban tobacco and alcohol?

It is well known that the sell and consumption of many drugs are forbidden by law in order to protect us from their harmful effects. However, there are some drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol, that are not forbidden. Should the government ban them?

As one of the government’s main duty is to protect us, seems logical that they should ban these drugs in order to prevent us from the negative effects that the consumption of tobacco and alcohol causes in our health, such as cognitive issues in the case of alcohol and pulmonary issues in the case of tobacco. By making these substances illegal, the average life expectancy would significantly increase.

On the other hand, the prohibition of these substances would eventually result in an increase of alcohol and tobacco smuggling, given that people would seek other ways to consume these drugs. This may result in an exponentially increase of mafia’s power, as well as of crime in general terms, which would lead the government to spend a bigger portion of its budget in police to keep the streets secure. If we add to this the big amount of income the state would stop earning from alcohol and tobacco taxes (because their sell would be forbidden), the result is lots of money lost that could have been invested in health service, education or other public services.

To conclude, even though these substances are very unhealthy for us, I strongly believe that the government should not ban tobacco and alcohol, as this prohibition may result in an increase of organised crime, which would lead the government to spend a lot of money, and so on. In my opinion, the cure would be much worse than the disease.