If you smoke and you still don't believe that there's a definite link between smoking and bronchial troubles, heart disease and lung cancer, then you are certainly deceiving yourself. No one will accuse you of hypocrisy. Let us just say that you are suffering from a bad case of wishful thinking. This needn't make you too uncomfortable because you are in good company. Whenever the subject of smoking and health is raised, the governments of most countries hear no evil, see no evil and smell no evil.
You don't have to look very far to find out why the official reactions to medical findings have been so lukewarm. The answer is simply money. Tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. It's almost like a tax on our daily bread.
This is surely the most short-sighted policy you could imagine. While money is eagerly collected in vast sums with one hand, it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. Enormous amounts are spent on cancer research and on efforts to cure people suffering from the disease. Countless valuable lives are lost. In the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would be much better-off if smoking were banned altogether.
For a start, governments could begin by banning all cigarette and tobacco advertising and should then conduct antismoking advertising campaigns of their own. Smoking should be banned in all public places like theatres, cinemas and restaurants. GREat efforts should be made to inform young people especially of the dire consequences of taking up the habit. A horrific warning--say, a picture of a death's head--should be included in every packet of cigarettes that is sold. As individuals we are certainly weak, but if governments acted honestly and courageously, they could protect us from ourselves.
各国政府应当厉行禁烟运动
如果你吸烟却又说你不相信吸烟与支气管疾病、心脏病以及肺癌之间存在着某种必然的联系的话，你一定 是 在自欺欺人。当然，没有人会为此指责你虚伪。我 们 只能说，你有一个爱痴心妄想的毛病。你不必对此太难为情，因为很多人都同你一样。只要提起吸烟与健康的话题，大多数国家的政府都对其害处视而不见，充耳不闻。
官方对吸烟有害健康的医学发现为何反应如此冷淡，此中缘由，不难发现。答案就 是 金钱。从税收的角度来看，香烟 是 一种绝妙的商品。对香烟征税简直就等于对我 们 每
天所吃的面包征税一样。
这绝对 是 你可以想见的最目光短浅的政策。政府的一只手急切地征收到大把钞票，却被另一只手以日益增长的更大数额花出去了。 巨额资金被用于研究癌症和治疗癌症患者。无数宝贵的生命丧失了。从长远看来，如果完全禁止吸烟的话，毫无疑问，每个人的生活都会大为改善。
作为禁烟的第一步，政府首先应该禁止一切香烟及烟草广告，然后发起反对吸烟的宣传活动。在一切公共场所如剧院、电影院、餐厅，吸烟都应当被禁止。要花大力气教育青年，尤其让他 们 了解染上吸烟这一恶习的可怕后果。在每一盒售出的香烟盒上都应该印上一个令吸烟者恐惧的警戒标志，比如一个骷髅头像。作为单个的人，我 们 当然 是 弱小的，但 是 ，如果政府的行为诚实而勇敢，定能保护我 们 免受自己的伤害。
