Short Communication
Smoking: Disease or Therapy
Mazen Saleh*Department of Biology, Laurentian University. Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
- Corresponding Author:
- Mazen Saleh
Department of Biology
Laurentian University
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Tel: 7056751151
E-mail: msaleh@laurentian.ca
Received date: date: Jan 27, 2016; Accepted date: Feb 22, 2016; Published date: date: Feb 29, 2016
Citation: Saleh M (2016) Smoking: Disease or Therapy. J Addict Res Ther 7: 269. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000269
Copyright: © 2016 Saleh M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
During the past 20 years Canada and several other state members of the WHO have been using regular sales tax increases as part of a policy to curb tobacco use. The WHO recent report (2015) on tobacco use classifies smoking as a disease. This report shows that the effect of tax increase on tobacco use is marginal and is difficult to isolate from the effects of other tobacco use measures such as restrictions on marketing, sales to minors, and public education. It is proposed that the unreasonable increase in tobacco taxes introduces additional stress on the smokers and further compromises their health. It is further proposed that tobacco use is treated as a form of selftherapy rather than a disease.