A cigarette meaning "small cigar" is a cylinder wrapped tightly around tobacco leaves with thin paper used for smoking. The cigarette is lit and allowed to burn while being inhaled from the other end. The cigarette is held or placed in the mouth and in some cases a mouthpiece may also be used. Most modern cigarettes are filtered and include other additives and regulated tobacco. Cigarettes pose many health problems, more than any other tobacco-related product. Nicotine, the main psychoactive chemical substance contained in tobacco and therefore in cigarettes, is addictive. Almost half of cigarette smokers die from tobacco-related diseases and/or problems and lose on average about 14 years of their lives. Because of all these health problems caused by cigarettes, the production and sale of cigarettes should be made permanently illegal. The only problem with making the production and sale of cigarettes illegal is that, although tobacco-related deaths would drastically reduce each year, the crime rate and tax loss would increase substantially. In theory, millions of Americans would eventually quit, while millions would never start. Many Americans, however, would continue to smoke and Big Tobacco would be replaced by a more dangerous and violent black market. Murders would increase as criminal organizations compete for territory and tobacco markets. The crime rate would also increase as millions of people addicted to tobacco would look for ways to obtain any form of tobacco. Many people cannot overcome the addictive property of nicotine, so they cannot suddenly stop smoking, regardless of whether tobacco is illegal or not. The government would also lose about $24 billion in tax revenue and $8.8 billion in tobacco payments… half the paper… welcoming companies to further produce cigarettes to meet daily demand. The effects of second-hand and third-hand smoke have negative effects on any adult, but have greater effects on developing children. Some effects of tobacco smoking are lung cancer, cardiac arrest, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD and many other similar ones. Another factor of cigarette smoking is freedom of choice, even if smokers decide whether to be smokers or not, they do not take into account the choices of non-smokers. In many workplaces, restaurants and/or bars smoking is not illegal indoors, which exposes non-smokers to the effects of second- and third-hand smoke by not accepting their choice in any way. These are just three of the many concerns related to tobacco smoking. Overall, the production and sale of cigarettes should be banned or made permanently illegal.