HARSH CRACKDOWNS ON TEEN SMOKERS CAN TRAMPLE GOOD SENSE

Like the sagacious lawmakers in enlightened harbors of social concern such
as Idaho, Florida, Texas and North Carolina, I believe we permissive
Californians should prosecute those dastardly juvenile smoking offenders
with nononsense determination ("States crack down hard on underage
smokers," Dec. 7).

In a nation already well on its way to hell in a handbasket, the additional
wear and tear on our social fabric by these villainous youths sneaking a
stogie behind the barn is incalculable.

Hence, let us be severe. Following the initial humiliation of their arrests
amid friends and neighbors, dutiful peace officers armed with hightech
equipment should manacle these delinquents and posthaste deliver them to
the local booking desk. Since as juveniles they lack Miranda privileges or
the right to representation and a single phone call, investigators may
swiftly stripsearch, photograph and fingerprint the boys and girls and
transport them to the nearest juvenile hall.

After their convictions a near certainty if we follow the example of
Gothenburg, Nob., and spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on sophisticated
camera surveillance equipment to record such heinous crimes we can ship
the incorrigible s to juvenile county work camps. Or better yet to the
gladiator schools of the California Youth Authority. That will teach them.

And the lesson they will learn from law enforcement and the criminal
justice system, from their peers both in and out of the juvenile penal
process and from a society that cannot support, protect or educate kids but
will gladly sacrifice them on the altar of adult puritanism will be well
reflected in your headlines when they become adults.

THOMAS L. MUNDEN, San Francisco