SMOKE-OUT SEEN AS JOKE

The 28 percent increase in college-aged smokers over the past four
years (Chronicle, Nov. 18) shows the utter hypocrisy of those lawsuits
demanding billions in damages from tobacco companies. It also
ridicules the vast education efforts to stem the tide of smoking and,
in effect, reduces the Great American Smoke-Out to a giant joke.

Consumption of tobacco has gone up, not down. In the face of the
overwhelming evidence of dire health consequences, thousands of young
Americans have made the decision to begin smoking. This is only a
slightly lower hurdle than the decision whether or not to experiment
with pot, cocaine or heroin.

We are a country that imprisons citizens for possession of a
controlled substance, but not for its existence in our bodies. We
declare it legal to produce and market tobacco, known to cause cancer,
emphysema and birth defects, yet we punish only the producers and not
the users. We prefer to accept the psycho-babble philosophy that users
are victims and somehow not responsible for their actions.

Jerry K. Deutsch, Houston

Checked-by: Patrick Henry