To smoke or not to smoke?

     "Thank You for Smoking" follows Nick Naylor, Vice President of a tobacco lobby called The Academy of Tobacco Studies.  Naylor is known as a smooth talking lobbyist, however is highly hated for defending tobacco products.  He completely understands the hazards of smoking, but his job is to, essentially, get people to keep smoking.

    

     The movie "Thank You for Smoking" relates to the articles that we discussed in class this week.  The article "Organized Interests and the Decision of Whom to Lobby in Congress" written by Marie Hojnacki and David Kimball, discussed the role that lobbyists play in Congress.  A lobbyist's job is to influence the decision of policy making in favor of what they were hired for.  As seen in the movie, Naylor lobbied in favor of tobacco use, claiming he had no solid evidence of risks.  We also discussed Harvey Sapolsky's article "The Political Obstacles to the Control of Cigarette Smoking in the United States."  According to the article, one-third of adult Americans are smokers (Sapolsky 1980).  This raises the question, adults have access to find out the hazards of tobacco, however, still smoke, what would it really take to make them stop?

    

     Recently, the government has stepped in and has made the decisions for us, in regard to smoking.  In New York and in New Jersey, smoking is banned in restaurants and apartment buildings, among other places.  I guess if the public will not stop for their own health, the government will attempt to make them.