ANTI-SMOKING EFFORTS AID FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL DRUGS

I am responding to the letter to the editor calling for society to focus on
illegal drugs and not to worry so much about cigarettes, which the writer
defined as the least bad of our bad habits.

I am a person who is in recovery from many drugs, including nicotine. I work
as a case manager at Grant Street Partnership, a drug treatment facility in
the Hill.

Nicotine is a major gateway drug and the hardest drug to kick.

In my group therapy, I do a session on smoking cessation.

I have worked for years with youth to help them steer clear of all drugs,
including tobacco, which is the leading killer in America. It's legal but
it's deadly.

I am the chairman of the substance abuse committee of the Hill neighborhood,
and I am trying to convince shopkeepers not to advertise tobacco products
outside their stores and to make a commitment to our youth to not sell them
tobacco, including "loosies" (single cigarettes) or cigars (which are
hollowed out to smoke "illy"). Of course such sales are illegal, but
everyone knows they are rampant.

Legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol kill far more people than all illegal
drugs combined. But illegal drugs also ruin far too many lives.

Let's not pit one against the other - let's save our children, our families,
and our neighborhoods from the damage done by all of them.

Kenneth Driffin

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst