if you smoke and you still don't believe that there's a definite link between smoking and bronchial troubles, heart disease and lung cancer, then you are certainly deceiving yourself. no one will accuse you of hypocrisy. let us just say that you are suffering from a bad case of wishful thinking. this needn't make you too uncomfortable because you are in good company. whenever the subject of smoking and health is raised, the governments of most countries hear no evil, see no evil and smell no evil.
you don't have to look very far to find out why the official reactions to medical findings have been so lukewarm. the answer is simply money. tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. it's almost like a tax on our daily bread.
this is surely the most short-sighted policy you could imagine. while money is eagerly collected in vast sums with one hand, it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. enormous amounts are spent on cancer research and on efforts to cure people suffering from the disease. countless valuable lives are lost. in the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would be much better-off if smoking were banned altogether.
for a start, governments could begin by banning all cigarette and tobacco advertising and should then conduct antismoking advertising campaigns of their own. smoking should be banned in all public places like theatres, cinemas and restaurants. great efforts should be made to inform young people especially of the dire consequences of taking up the habit. a horrific warning--say, a picture of a death's head--should be included in every packet of cigarettes that is sold. as individuals we are certainly weak, but if governments acted honestly and courageously, they could protect us from ourselves.
“各國政府應當厲行禁菸運動”英語作文譯文：
如果你吸菸卻又說你不相信吸菸與支氣管疾病、心臟病以及肺癌之間存在著某種必然的聯繫的話，你一定是在自欺欺人。當然，沒有人會為此指責你虛偽。我們只能說，你有一個愛痴心妄想的毛病。你不必對此太難為情，因為很多人都同你一樣。只要提起吸菸與健康的話題，大多數國家的政府都對其害處視而不見，充耳不聞。
官方對吸菸有害健康的醫學發現為何反應如此冷淡，此中緣由，不難發現。答案就是金錢。從稅收的角度來看，香菸是一種絕妙的商品。對香菸徵稅簡直就等於對我們每
天所吃的麵包徵稅一樣。
這絕對是你可以想見的最目光短淺的政策。政府的一隻手急切地徵收到大把鈔票，卻被另一隻手以日益增長的更大數額花出去了。 巨額資金被用於研究癌症和治療癌症患者。無數寶貴的生命喪失了。從長遠看來，如果完全禁止吸菸的話，毫無疑問，每個人的生活都會大為改善。
作為禁菸的第一步，政府首先應該禁止一切香菸及菸草廣告，然後發起反對吸菸的宣傳活動。在一切公共場所如劇院、電影院、餐廳，吸菸都應當被禁止。要花大力氣教育青年，尤其讓他們了解染上吸菸這一惡習的可怕後果。在每一盒售出的香菸盒上都應該印上一個令吸菸者恐懼的警戒標誌，比如一個骷髏頭像。作為單個的人，我們當然是弱小的，但是，如果政府的行為誠實而勇敢，定能保護我們免受自己的傷害。