TOBACCO COMPANIES ARE GIGANTIC DRUG DEALERS

I must express my opposition to Attorney General James Doyle's
decision to accept the settlement offered by the tobacco industry.

Given the information that has been made public about the effects of
tobacco and the activities of these companies, I do not think that
they or any other private companies or any investors should make a
profit from the selling of tobacco to anyone.

Do we not consider drug dealers more heinous than the addicts
themselves, and are not tobacco companies (and secondarily their
investors) gigantic drug dealers even though they are operating "legally"?

Yes, we have the necessary evil of many millions of people already
addicted to tobacco so that we must deal with that situation.

However, recent commentary on public radio rightly pointed out that
teen smoking is linked to the models of adult smoking and therefore
they ought not to be considered separately. Thus, I would propose that
there ought to be a nonprofit reorganization of the tobacco industry
with the goal of hopefully phasing it out altogether eventually. I
realize that this is a radical suggestion in these times when money
and the free enterprise system are viewed in virtual godlike fashion.

However, the alleged productivity and efficiency of our economic
system sometimes comes with considerable social costs that private
industry has generally not been held accountable for.

I was not surprised that Gov. Thompson supported this settlement,
given his alliance with business interests.

However, this was not a decision that should have been rushed into,
regardless of the deadline cleverly stipulated by the tobacco industry
to avoid careful consideration and public input.

At the very least, I believe that any settlement with the tobacco
industry must include much closer monitoring by the government, as
proposed by classifying tobacco as an addictive drug to be regulated
by the FDA, which has been particularly opposed to the tobacco industry.

By comparison note how we deal with marijuana, despite its possible
medical uses and other uses in the hemp industry.

Don Wescher

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady