WHAT IF CIGARETTES WERE ILLEGAL?

Re Dr Ashley Berry's letter (Herald, May 24), the good doctor is right
that it is probably the case that no cigarette smoker has "pimped,
bashed or stolen for a packet of fags".

However, if we were to make cigarettes illegal tomorrow, throw
offenders into jail, ostracise the users and their families, limit the
supply of quit smoking programs, limit the supply and availability of
nicotine patches, gums, etc, what would happen to the price of a
cigarette on the black market? To what levels would people stoop to
get their next drag?

Of course, such a scenario would never occur. We are a just and caring
society. We would look after people with such addiction. We wouldn't
ostracise them or their families; we would spend heaps on quit smoking
campaigns; we would, to a certain extent, tolerate their addiction and
would never consider it a criminal problem but a health one.

Why the difference in society attitudes against two substances, both
of which are addictive drugs and both of which kill?

Beats me. I'll have a drink and ponder on it.

Paul Gittings,
Russell Lea
May 25