ADDICTED IN THE SERVICE

Your story illustrates the hypocrisy inherent in our government's policy on
drugs. The VA and other supporters of the law reason that we shouldn't have
to pay veterans for treatment of smoking-related disease because they smoked
on government time, despite the fact that the cigarettes the soldiers smoked
were often provided by the government as part of their C-rations.

Evidently the government feels it can distribute a dangerous, addictive drug
to its soldiers without then being held responsible for the veterans'
resulting health problems.

This is the same government that legislates against the distribution and use
of many other drugs (e.g., marijuana), reasoning that allowing a population
access to a drug will result in certain individuals using and abusing that
drug.

But maybe this logic only extends to drugs without a government subsidy.

Katherine Hoggatt, Berkeley

Checked-by: Don Beck