ATTACKS ON CIGARETTES REEK OF HYPOCRISY

Hypocrisy. What else can you call it when the president and Congress want
to hold the tobacco industry liable for kids smoking after the president is
caught on camera smoking a cigar, and then wants to ban billboards?

A study by the Office of National Drug Control reports that since 1993,
marijuana use by teens rose from 29% to 48%, and 90% of 9- to 12-year-olds
are aware of marijuana according to the Partnership for a Drug Free America
in a Journal Sentinel story ("Parents out of touch with their kids' drug
use," April 13).

The same story told of teenagers dying of overdoses of heroin. I have yet
to see a billboard flaunting either one, yet kids die every day from drugs,
not cigarettes.

This is one fact the do-gooders against tobacco don't talk about. It's
called priorities. Tobacco is deadly in any form, but what they don't tell
you is that the same carcinogens that are in a cigarette come out of your
auto's tailpipe, lawn mower, snow blower, etc.

Do we not, as kids do, inhale these deadly secondhand fumes every day? Why
is there no outcry or taxes or billboard bans on these? After all, isn't
the motor vehicle the leader in maiming, crippling and killing wildlife and
humans?

Robert F. Krause West Allis