We all know that smoking cigarettes is bad; we know that it is unhealthy and can kill you. Yet people still continue to smoke, what will it take to get people to actually take initiative to quit and save themselves and those around them? With the side effects of smoking being a huge problem, the bans that have already been setup to try and control the problem, and the possible substitute for cigarettes, lawmakers need to make smoking cigarettes illegal. Smoking has been around for over a century, it was cool and in style at a time, but that time has long past, with all the research that has been conducted coming out with tons of side effects towards smoking. A huge side effect being the death toll as mentioned by a clinical study "More than 400,000 American lives are lost every year to cigarette smoking" (Ridner). The American Cancer Society even says "smoking [is] the single most preventable cause of death in the United States today" (Smoking 1). You would think people would want to stop being exposed to smoke in public places. Another side effect is second hand smoke. The scenario where someone else's doing puts your own health at risk while you are just walking on a sidewalk next to someone that is smoking. Smokers have their designated smoking areas but its not enough. The smoke still travels through the air and does its damage. Being exposed to second hand smoke on a regular basis can be just as bad as smoking a cigarette yourself: secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure increases morbidity and mortality in individuals through the development of conditions such as asthma, coronary heart disease, and lung cancer (Kalkhoran 1). The side effects of smoking clearly express the need to make smoking cigarettes against the law. In America, depending on which states you are in there are smoking bans to try and protect people against second hand smoke. These bans consist of smokers not being able to smoke unless in a designated area that s