From a sociological point of view, if we take into account the flow and stock data Hickman’s thought experiment is based on, this increase of schizophrenia in the population groups is the most likely outcome, but here we should not forget the model is also based on assumptions. So far, the medical statement has not been faced yet with a situation where cannabis has been the cause of permanent brain damage or incurable schizophrenia, so it is rather difficult to say whether an increase in prevalence and incidence to new super strength skunk will necessarily mean an increase of incurable mental health problems.

Regarding the study of human flows or social sciences in general it is rather difficult to point out causal links. Association between variables does not necessarily mean some of them must be the cause or have a knock-on effect upon the rest. Other difficulty to pinpoint casual links shows its ugly face when not all the relevant variables are included in the sociological model. There seems to be a correlation between cannabis and the surge of violent crime but so far we have not a relevant study yet on cannabis resin use, as a likely variable operating on its own, and the incidence of violent crime.

Cambridge University Professor Peter Jones’ chart on cannabis use is withdrawal symptoms is rather surprising since an explanatory reduction to chemical compounds and the activity of the brain has not been possible yet in this sense. Even if we concede Professor Jones the occurrence of these variables, the account is still problematic as it cannot include those cases where withdrawal from this substance did not show withdrawal symptoms at all. In the Lancet report, cannabis appears as the third less addictive substance, only surpassed by steroids and LSD (1st and 2nd less addictive substances respectively).

Due to the chemical properties of THC, one of cannabis’ main active ingredients, since it remains in the body after a month of its ingestion, UN representative Antonio Maria Costa’s claim that users should be treated as those arrested for driving under the influence might seem to have some support. If not as dangerous as alcohol is, driving after its use is still just as problematic as driving while speaking on the phone. The medical establishment is aware of cases where studying or other tasks that require concentration have been achieved under the influence of cannabis resin, but there’s also an increment in the amount of time needed to fulfill those tasks as distraction and other factors are very likely to lead users away from it every now and again. This does not necessarily mean “distraction”, as a consequence of cannabis use, is a permanent damage difficult to avoid once it settles in since withdrawal from it always improves concentration levels, but it does underline the fact that laziness and apathy are always important factors that break in when users recur to it.

Even though THC lacks a nitrogen atom in its molecule it can be safely included in those psychotropic compounds’ list that build up upon benzene or indolic rings if we take on board the effect upon the body. The schizoid episodes to be found in cannabis users are of a lesser importance and intensity than those commonly associated with substances such as LSD but this can be explained just recurring to the way this substance breaks in into the body. An ingestion of cannabis resin, instead of its usual use in water pipes or rollups, would put users certainly closer to those psychotic episodes so characteristic, for instance, in indolic compounds. However, any psychiatrist or psychologist worth its salt knows how easy it is to get rid of these symptoms with proper psychological help in case there were not a latent physiological predisposition to develop schizophrenia or psychosis prior to cannabis use. And once the problem has been sorted, it is very unlikely users will go back to previous stages or positions.

Here it seems sensible to underline the importance of proper technical vocabulary to better give account for these social phenomena. There is of course a margin in everything to defend ones’ personal preferences or inclinations, but the data we draw our conclusions from must be accurate. The IoS states that super strength variety skunk is 10 times stronger than cannabis resin (25 for The Daily Mail, 19th March 2007), but this datum is not accurate at all. Cannabis resin is far stronger than cannabis itself since “resin” is one of cannabis’ by products. Even the oily stuff of regular plants will still yield the highest concentrations of THC as plant and resin work out on a ratio of 100kgms/1grm. Super strength skunk can only be stronger than cannabis resin if the latter means “adulterated resin”, which is still available today. The new variety of the plant’s higher concentration levels can be seen here as the user’s ultimate attempt to avoid cheat and provide with a better product for himself in a world dominated by gangs and criminal mafias. Super strength skunk seems to sell well because there is a social demand for it.

Correlations between higher concentrations of THC and addiction, even if these variables seem to go hand in hand, should not lead us to think there is a casual link between them. “Cannabis addiction” is a sociological term and it should not be used in medical explanations if its use beguiles readers into thinking there are physical and physiological factors that can give account for addiction itself in this sense. It is obvious social activities such as biting your fingers or gamming on line can be treated as addictions as well-and surely there are endogenous chemical compounds and molecules that must be involved in them (perhaps as a source of dopamine or other endorphins)-but all of these cases always present readers with weak individuals and soft characters, which exemplify extremes that cannot be helped or prevented with proper medical care.

The problem with this kind of study is that it doesn’t go the whole way. It is probably true – cannabis can cause schizophrenia, along with a whole host of other mental illnesses. And real addiction to weed will damage all your opportunities such as your job, your studies, your family relationships.

But switch it the other way round. People with mental illness are more likely to smoke or reach for the bong anyway. Many people are aware of their situation, and their powerlessness in it, and would prefer to get high and forget about it. Wouldn’t you?

A few tokes of a splee won’t turn you into a raving lunatic or divide your personality like a pizza. Recreational drug use isn’t a sure fire way to madness, depression and neurosis; it is, however, a remarkably effective way of dealing with it. Stuff like maijuana, cocaine, alcohol, etc. is a comfort to the sufferer. It will change your personality, often for the worse in the case of abuse, and therein the downward spiral begins.

There are (shock horror!) benefits to smoking weed. I’m off the stuff myself, but I still get cravings when I’m stressed. I know all sorts of people that smoke weed, in fact I’d be harder pressed to find someone of my generation that didn’t. They’re not exactly running businesses and flying around in convertables, but you got to admit, my generation hasn’t exactly been handed the path to opportunity on a plate. Look at the situation we have today.

If we screw up in school, for whatever reason, we’re screwed. We screw up our job, we’re screwed. And that’s it. There’s no second chance. After 19 we have to pay sky high college fees to get our GCSEs back. Or if we want to go to Uni we have to borrow a mortgage just to get the education we need to be financially successful. if we don’t want to borrow, we’re screwed. If we don’t want to play poker with the future, we’re screwed. The apprenticeship system in my county and all the counties around it – it’s not lucrative. If there’s no money in us, then we’re considered dossers and dropouts. You want a self fulfilling prophecy, you’ve got one there. And the number of kids my age who have no future except for JSA meetings or McJobs is incredible. We have no rich parents to bail us out. Does that make it any easier to resist the spliff that’s being passed around? Or to not open up a can and think, hell with it?

You want to know something about drugs? Ever thought about why doling out meds is all the rage? Because they get pushed on us, that’s why. Christ, the number of kids on citalopram, fluoxetine, risperadone, all because they went to the doctor and said they were feeling down and couldn’t cope with stuff? How is stuffing you with drugs going to help? Is the medical community going to think about that??? It’s all around me. That’s because there’s money in it. Big pharmaceutical companies want their buck. So how is that proper medical care. You might even have a real mental illness, lurking away in the corners of your mind. But the sad reality is that the medical establishment just doesn’t care, and that weed helps smooth that fact over. Recreational drugs are cheap, easy to obtain, and not overly harmful to the human body or brain.

So don’t look at it and think weed causes schizophrenia. Think about it the other way round. That goes for you, doctor.

First of all, I think that smoking should be banned in public places because smoking can affect the environmental health. For example, there are many cigarette butts littering on the ground everyday and many would carrying in the rivers or lakes later by the rain. As a result, these cigarette butts would eaten accidentally by the fishes or other animals that live in the water and would cause them to die. And whatever is left is staying on the ground which would probably takes about twenty-five years to decompose. Therefore, the toxic that remain in cigarette filter would later leak into the soil and contaminating the plants.

Second of all, I think smoking should be banned in public places because it can cause bad air pollution. For example, when they are smoking there are many toxic
chemicals that releases from the smoke of tobacco into the air such as tar, nicotine, benzene, benzopyrene, carbon monoxide, ammonia, dimethyinitrosamine, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and acrolein. Therefore, the smoke that is coming out of the cigarette is harmful for all the non-smokers when they breathe it in. Based on the studies of secondhand smoke, it shows that air pollution can harm the heart and circulatory system. Also, earlier research found that exposure to the secondhand smoke for just one cigarette a day can speed up the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is defined as “a form of arteriosclerosis characterized by the deposition of atheromatous plaques containing cholesterol and lipids on the innermost layer of the walls of large and medium-sized arteries.”

you have done a great job!!!!
it should be second-hand instead of secondhand
day -care instead of daycare
toxic to be changed as toxins

It is important for people to know how dangerous environmental smoke is because it can affect the health of many other people live. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is also called second smoke or passive smoke which is defined as “the smoke you breathe that comes from other people, whether they exhale it or get it from the tobacco burning near you, like the end of a cigarette (side stream smoke).” Environmental tobacco smoke, second-hand smoke, or passive smoke contained over 4000 dangerous chemicals in it such as toxins (poisons) and carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals). Several of these dangerous chemicals are acetone (paint stripper), cyanide (rat poison), DDT (insecticide), ammonia (toilet cleaner), formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic and hydrogen cyanide. Non-smokers can get exposed to second-hand smoke everywhere in the public places for instance restaurants, shopping centres, public transportations, workplaces, schools, day-care centres and other places . Therefore, smoking should be banned in all public locations because it makes the public victims of second hand smoke leading to many serious cancers, illnesses and it can also caused many other issues as well.

First of all, I think that smoking should be banned in public places because smoking can affect the environmental health. For example, there are many cigarette butts littering on the ground everyday and many would carrying in the rivers or lakes later by the rain. As a result, these cigarette butts would eaten accidentally by the fishes or other animals that live in the water and would cause them to die. And whatever is left is staying on the ground which would probably takes about twenty-five years to decompose. Therefore, the toxins that remain in cigarette filter would later leak into the soil and contaminating the plants.

Second of all, I think smoking should be banned in public places because it can cause bad air pollution. For example, when they are smoking there are many toxic
chemicals that releases from the smoke of tobacco into the air such as tar, nicotine, benzene, benzopyrene, carbon monoxide, ammonia, dimethyinitrosamine, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and acrolein. Therefore, the smoke that is coming out of the cigarette is harmful for all the non-smokers when they breathe it in. Based on the studies of second-hand smoke, it shows that air pollution can harm the heart and circulatory system. Also, earlier research found that exposure to the second-hand smoke for just one cigarette a day can speed up the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is defined as “a form of arteriosclerosis characterized by the deposition of atheromatous plaques containing cholesterol and lipids on the innermost layer of the walls of large and medium-sized arteries.”

Hope I have not missed out any thing more ………..:)

From a sociological point of view, if we take into account the flow and stock data Hickman’s thought experiment is based on, this increase of schizophrenia in the population groups is the most likely outcome, but here we should not forget the model is also based on assumptions. So far, the medical statement has not been faced yet with a situation where cannabis has been the cause of permanent brain damage or incurable schizophrenia, so it is rather difficult to say whether an increase in prevalence and incidence to new super strength skunk will necessarily mean an increase of incurable mental health problems.

Regarding the study of human flows or social sciences in general it is rather difficult to point out causal links. Association between variables does not necessarily mean some of them must be the cause or have a knock-on effect upon the rest. Other difficulty to pinpoint casual links shows its ugly face when not all the relevant variables are included in the sociological model. There seems to be a correlation between cannabis and the surge of violent crime but so far we have not a relevant study yet on cannabis resin use, as a likely variable operating on its own, and the incidence of violent crime.

Cambridge University Professor Peter Jones’ chart on cannabis use is withdrawal symptoms is rather surprising since an explanatory reduction to chemical compounds and the activity of the brain has not been possible yet in this sense. Even if we concede Professor Jones the occurrence of these variables, the account is still problematic as it cannot include those cases where withdrawal from this substance did not show withdrawal symptoms at all. In the Lancet report, cannabis appears as the third less addictive substance, only surpassed by steroids and LSD (1st and 2nd less addictive substances respectively).

Due to the chemical properties of THC, one of cannabis’ main active ingredients, since it remains in the body after a month of its ingestion, UN representative Antonio Maria Costa’s claim that users should be treated as those arrested for driving under the influence might seem to have some support. If not as dangerous as alcohol is, driving after its use is still just as problematic as driving while speaking on the phone. The medical establishment is aware of cases where studying or other tasks that require concentration have been achieved under the influence of cannabis resin, but there’s also an increment in the amount of time needed to fulfill those tasks as distraction and other factors are very likely to lead users away from it every now and again. This does not necessarily mean “distraction”, as a consequence of cannabis use, is a permanent damage difficult to avoid once it settles in since withdrawal from it always improves concentration levels, but it does underline the fact that laziness and apathy are always important factors that break in when users recur to it.

Even though THC lacks a nitrogen atom in its molecule it can be safely included in those psychotropic compounds’ list that build up upon benzene or indolic rings if we take on board the effect upon the body. The schizoid episodes to be found in cannabis users are of a lesser importance and intensity than those commonly associated with substances such as LSD but this can be explained just recurring to the way this substance breaks in into the body. An ingestion of cannabis resin, instead of its usual use in water pipes or rollups, would put users certainly closer to those psychotic episodes so characteristic, for instance, in indolic compounds. However, any psychiatrist or psychologist worth its salt knows how easy it is to get rid of these symptoms with proper psychological help in case there were not a latent physiological predisposition to develop schizophrenia or psychosis prior to cannabis use. And once the problem has been sorted, it is very unlikely users will go back to previous stages or positions.

Here it seems sensible to underline the importance of proper technical vocabulary to better give account for these social phenomena. There is of course a margin in everything to defend ones’ personal preferences or inclinations, but the data we draw our conclusions from must be accurate. The IoS states that super strength variety skunk is 10 times stronger than cannabis resin (25 for The Daily Mail, 19th March 2007), but this datum is not accurate at all. Cannabis resin is far stronger than cannabis itself since “resin” is one of cannabis’ by products. Even the oily stuff of regular plants will still yield the highest concentrations of THC as plant and resin work out on a ratio of 100kgms/1grm. Super strength skunk can only be stronger than cannabis resin if the latter means “adulterated resin”, which is still available today. The new variety of the plant’s higher concentration levels can be seen here as the user’s ultimate attempt to avoid cheat and provide with a better product for himself in a world dominated by gangs and criminal mafias. Super strength skunk seems to sell well because there is a social demand for it.

Correlations between higher concentrations of THC and addiction, even if these variables seem to go hand in hand, should not lead us to think there is a casual link between them. “Cannabis addiction” is a sociological term and it should not be used in medical explanations if its use beguiles readers into thinking there are physical and physiological factors that can give account for addiction itself in this sense. It is obvious social activities such as biting your fingers or gamming on line can be treated as addictions as well-and surely there are endogenous chemical compounds and molecules that must be involved in them (perhaps as a source of dopamine or other endorphins)-but all of these cases always present readers with weak individuals and soft characters, which exemplify extremes that cannot be helped or prevented with proper medical care.

I’ve been dependent on cannabis (in particular, skunk) for a number of years. I don’t think it is a physical addiction, rather a psychological one that I use to deal with mental health problems, and this is supported by the fact that since it has stopped helping me feel better, I have had no trouble staying off it.

My brother also used it for two years before he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but the doctors involved believed the cannabis to be a form of self medication rather than the cause of such a profound mental illness.

Out of the people I know who have developed psychotic illnesses, including my brother, they have all smoked pot, but they have all taken pills, lsd and god knows what else. They also all come from difficult and sometimes traumatic backgrounds. And certainly within my family there seems to be a clear genetic predisposition.

I think that the idea that cannabis can cause psychosis that lasts beyond the use of it is not only ridiculous but irresponsible. Too many parents ignore psychotic symptoms in their children because they think they’re on drugs. And it’s not just parents, I’ve seen a 17 year old manic depressive turned away from a mental ward because they believed his psychosis to be purely caused by cannabis. This was not the case and it took him a further year to get a proper diagnosis and be treated.

Lastly, I have never in my life met a violent stoner. I know there was a case in the news recently, but he seemed to be quite clearly psychotic, whether it was drug induced or not, this is hardly the norm, for psychosis or cannabis use.

Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
A colourless liquid, highly poisonous, used to preserve dead bodies – also found in cigarette smoke. Known to cause cancer, respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal problems.

Ammonia (toilet cleaner)
Used as a flavouring, frees nicotine from tobacco turning it into a gas, found in dry cleaning fluids.

Acetone (nail polish remover)
Fragrant volatile liquid ketone, used as a solvent, for example, nail polish remover – found in cigarette smoke.

Tar
Particulate matter drawn into lungs when you inhale on a lighted cigarette. Once inhaled, smoke condenses and about 70 per cent of the tar in the smoke is deposited in the smoker’s lungs.

Nicotine (insecticide/addictive drug)
One of the most addictive substances known to man, a powerful and fast-acting medical and non-medical poison. This is the chemical which causes addiction.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) (car exhaust fumes)
An odourless, tasteless and poisonous gas, rapidly fatal in large amounts – it’s the same gas that comes out of car exhausts and is the main gas in cigarette smoke, formed when the cigarette is lit. Others you may recognize are :

Arsenic (rat poison), Hydrogen Cyanide (gas chamber poison)

source: Health Education Authority (UK) – Lifesaver

The list of 599 additives approved by the US Government for use in the manufacture of cigarettes is something every smoker should see. Submitted by the five major American cigarette companies to the Dept. of Health and Human Services in April of 1994, this list of ingredients had long been kept a secret.

Tobacco companies reporting this information were:

American Tobacco Company
Brown and Williamson
Liggett Group, Inc.
Philip Morris Inc.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

While these ingredients are approved as additives for foods, they were not tested by burning them, and it is the burning of many of these substances which changes their properties, often for the worse. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Carbon monoxide
nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. Forty-three known carcinogens are in mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, or both.

It’s chilling to think about not only how smokers poison themselves, but what others are exposed to by breathing in the secondhand smoke. The next time you’re missing your old buddy, the cigarette, take a good long look at this list and see them for what they are: a delivery system for toxic chemicals and carcinogens.

Cigarettes offer people only a multitude of smoking-related diseases and ultimately death.

Smokers…if you are brave enough then have a look.

http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/nicotineinhaler/a/cigingredients.htm

MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) — Exposure to burning incense over long periods of time raises the risk of developing cancers of the upper respiratory tract, a new study shows.

Interestingly, the practice did not increase the overall risk of lung cancer.

"Given that our results are backed by numerous experimental studies showing that incense is a powerful producer of particulate matter and that incense smoke contains carcinogenic substances, I believe incense should be used with caution," said study author Dr. Jeppe Friborg, of the department of epidemiology research at Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. "That is, frequent use in rooms where people live should be minimized, or at least sufficient ventilation should be secured. In our study, we find the increased risk of cancer to be present in individuals reporting frequent use of incense for many years, thus, repeated exposure for years should probably be avoided."

Others echoed the thought.

"The American Lung Association is going to add it as a risk factor," said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the association. "It’s not nearly the danger of smoking a pack a day for 20 years, but it’s a danger."

Not only is incense burned regularly as part of daily life in large swaths of Asia, the practice is also popular among certain segments in the West.

Incense burning produces particulate matter and is known to contain possible carcinogens such as polyaromatic hyodrcarbons (PAHs), carbonyls and benzene.

There have also been reports linking the burning of incense with cancer but the results have been inconsistent.

For this study, researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with more than 61,000 Singapore Chinese aged 45 to 74 who were cancer-free at the beginning of the study.

Incense burning almost doubled the risk of developing squamous cell upper respiratory tract carcinomas including nasal/sinus, tongue, mouth and laryngeal. There was an increased risk both in smokers and in nonsmokers, pointing to an independent effect of incense smoke.

There was no overall increased risk of lung cancer, but it did heighten the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.

Will incense go the way of tobacco? Not necessarily, said some experts.

"Certainly I think bathing yourself in particles is probably not the smartest thing in the world . . . but I think very few people fill up their room with incense," said Dr. Arthur Frankel, a professor of medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and director of the Cancer Center, Cancer Research Institute and Division of Hematology/Oncology at Scott & White in Temple.

The findings, which are in the Oct. 1 issue of Cancer, might also point researchers toward other household practices that should be investigated.

"It’s a population-based study, which means that you can make an association but not necessarily a conclusion," said Dr. Erin Fleener, a clinical assistant professor in internal medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and an oncologist at the Bryan-College Station Cancer Clinic. "It probably promotes more work in the area of routine household items and things we need to be looking at more prospectively to make a clear cause-and-effect relationship."

In general, though, it’s not a bad idea to avoid environmental pollutants of various types.

"Anything that affects air quality negatively is not a good thing," said Dr. Len Horvitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "Burning in general and the release of smoke, these things are certainly to be avoided. At the very least, chemical irritants will set off asthma, and that’s reversible. Cancer is not reversible."

"This is not unlike the type of risk that one experiences from secondhand tobacco smoke," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. "At the end of the day, people who use incense casually, I don’t think that’s a cause for major concern, but those cultures which embrace incense as part of their daily lifestyles have to consider this has a real potential risk for cancer."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080825/hl_hsn/longtermexposuretoincenseraisescancerrisk;_ylt=AgTQT4Gkj.RpB6wNuLTUOPUDW7oF

wow didn’t know that, thanks for sharing. I don’t burn them but my dad does. this info will come in handy.

Acetic Acid (Corrosive to respiratory tract)
Acetone (used in nail polish removers.)
Ammonia. (Used in floor and toilet cleaners)
Arsenic (a poison)
Cadmium (Car battery Fluid)
Carbon Monoxide (interferes with the supply of oxygen in the blood to the rest of the body)
DDT/ dielderon (Insecticides)
Ethanol (Alcohol)
Formalin (used in preserving human tissue and fabric)
Hexamine (used in explosive compounds)
Hydrogen Cyanide (Poison)
Methane (Petroleum Gas)
Naphthalene (used in moth balls)
Nicotine (Schedule 6 Poison)
Nitro Benzene (a petrol additive)
Phenols (used in disinfectants)
Stearic Acid (used in candle wax)
Toluene (Industrial solvent)
Vinyl Chloride (used in PVC)
sorry i ran out of words
but any way every time a smoker walked p[assed me i thought a) i was gonna die
b) how can these people live
c) no wonder it kills you

I like that you don’t like to smoke. But you can’t just READ something and say you know everything on it. I personally hate smoking and alcohol because of family members who have abused the two substances and made my life a living hell and still to this day. I also gag when I smell smoke, and pissed off when I see liquor.

Do you believe our town is as clean as it could be? Everyday you walk the streets of our city and smell that nasty smoke which smokers leave behind. All those chemicals and poisons can not be good to have floating around in the air. Smokers have an adverse effect not only on themselves, but also to those people around them as well. Smokers are trashing our peaceful town by just throwing their cigarette butts on the ground where we all have to walk and our children have to play. This type of filth is not acceptable. Our city deserves to be a clean place suitable for all of those who live in it. I am proposing that we put a new law into place that bans smoking in all public areas in our town. I am advocating for this change because smoking exposes innocent people to secondhand smoke, it fills our town with unwanted filth, and because it encourages negative health actions by letting children watch adults who are smoking.
Smoking out in public not only damages smokers’ bodies, but also those who have to be around them. Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers. It lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can cause or exacerbate a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma. Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. It contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. Secondhand smoke causes almost 50,000 deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year. Therefore, if we ban smoking in all public places in our town we will be able to prevent many diseases and deaths from occurring. Together we can make our town a healthier place to live.

What can I do to make this better?

Well, I’d like to first say that you have a pretty solid basis here, but I would add some stylistic changes to increase the persuasive function of the essay.

First, don’t name smokers as the cause right away.
start by just pointing out all the filth, getting your audience agreeing with you, THEN you blame it on the smokers. If you lay blame to quickly, your audience may think you’re finger-pointing or presumptuous, and that’s not persuasive.

Second, I would make the descriptions more vivid. Don’t just stop by saying that there’s filth and smoke, but DESCRIBE the experience, it’ll be more convincing,
other than that it’s good

Scroll down looking at left side of page for a total of 3 pages.