考研满分作文 | 社会热点类：吸烟与健康

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     The bar chart above shows that the number of Chinese smokers exceeds the current population of the U.S. and Chinese production of cigarettes accounts for 40% of the world's total. Chinese smokers smoke 2 trillion cigarettes a year, which leads to 1.1 million people dying of smoking-related diseases. However, the taxes paid by the tobacco industry amounted to about 753 billion yuan in 2011.
     So, is the sale and consumption of tobacco a good thing or not? To the government it is a mixed blessing. While the sale to domestic consumers and exports abroad bring in valuable financial returns, the cost to the government of providing increased health care to patients afflicted with smoking-related diseases is spiraling year by year. The cost to smokers is even higher as smoking-related diseases affect more and more people, some of whom die earlier than normal. Added to this are the effects of second-hand smoke where innocents are caught up in a medical condition not of their own making.
     To sell or not to sell, to buy or not to buy, that is the question. The easiest of all answers would be just to export tobacco products and to ban all domestic use, but this is hardly feasible within a free economy.