THE REAL PROBLEMS ARE DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

The September 23 headline, "U.S. Goes After Tobacco Firms," certainly
was accurate, but I think it would be more relevant if it said, "U.S.
Goes After U.S. Smokers."

I am concerned about the health hazard of smoking, but I'm not certain
the government or I can change all that. It certainly did not work in
Prohibition and I doubt it's going to work in tobacco. All it could
create is a tremendous black market.

Something is wrong when we are so intent on penalizing
the millions of smokers in this nation and the industry that provides the
cigarettes for these smokers. Smoking in and of itself is not a real
problem in this country. Drugs and alcohol are killing and
debilitating far more people than smoking ever thought about doing.
You don't see smokers as criminals who murder, abuse their families,
don't go to work on a regular basis, and create hardships on their
families because of their smoking. While it is not a desirable or
healthy habit in any sense of the word, let's get to the real
debilitating killers -- drugs and alcohol -- if we are going to pick
on any industry.

Incidentally, I'm not a smoker and I have never been a smoker, nor am
I a stockholder in any tobacco company. Fair-minded Americans who do
not want to see people have health problems and possible death from
smoking afforded an exacting substantial penalty when they harm no one
except themselves. It exemplifies an all-wise bureaucracy, chiseling
away the rights of our citizens.

David L. Peebles