Smoking Ban is Law of the Land

Hawaii recently passed a new law concerning smoking, the law makes it illegal to smoke in many public places including all, restaurants, bars, airports, and partially enclosed facilities that are open to the public. This new has made many smokers upset claiming that it takes away their right’s but nonsmokers are happy to have a law protect their right to breathe clean air. Inorder to look at this issue in a rational way one must look at the economics of smoking and of the new law.Hawaii has the 11th highest tax rate per pack of cigarettes at 1.40 per pack (Taxfoundation.org). These regulations are designed to protect nonsmokers from the negative side effects of second hand smoke, but the tax doesn’t make that many people quit smoking. According to the book Curbing the Epidemic by the World Bank “researchers have found that a price rise of 10 percent for a pack of cigarettes decreases demand by about 4 percent (an elasticity of -0.4)” this proves that the elasticity of demand for smoking cigarettes is relatively inelastic. So the Government must step in and enforce regulations against smoking.The new law will make it much more inconvenient for smokers to smoke in public places, the increase in inconvenience is measured as an increase in price, so it will decrease the quantity demanded for cigarettes. Figure-1 illustrates the shift in supply and reduction in quantity demanded, which shows the increased inconvenience. The new law was created inorder to reduce the amount of places that people can smoke thus reducing the supply of places to smoke. The demand for cigarettes is relatively inelastic because nicotine is an addictive substance and there are no close substitutes. According to the World Bank Smoking regulations reduce “tobacco consumption by between 4 and 10 percent, according to various estimates” this is a much greater affect than changing the price of cigarettes. According to Figure-2 the marginal cost to society will be reduced by this new law, it will shift from E-1 to E-2, which will be an increase in cleanliness. This new law will affect the polluters (smokers) by reducing pollution causing activities.Since nicotine is such an addictive substance it will be hard for smokers to quit, therefore the government will have to step in again and offer more nicotine replacement therapy programs such as “Smoking Cessation”. This will make it much easier for them to quit smoking because it will provide needed support for smokers. Another long-term implication that this law will have is that it will prevent more people from starting smoking in the first place because fewer children will be exposed to cigarettes and less non-smokers at bars will be around smoking, which is a time when some people would be more likely to take a chance and try something they wouldn’t normally do since they would be inebriated. Although many smokers complain about the new law, it will greatly benefit society in the future by protecting our children.Sources:”The Tax Foundation – Tax Data for Hawaii.” Tax Data Hawaii. 11 OCT 2006.Tax Foundation. Accessed 6 Dec 2006 .United States of America. The World Bank.Curbing the Epidemic:Governmnets and the Economics of Tobacco Control.Washington, DC: GPO, 1999.tobacco-paper.doc