DURBIN SUGGESTS PLAN TO DISCOURAGE TOBACCO USE by BERNARD SCHOENBURG STAFF WRITER
Copyright (c) 1997, The State JournalRegister

Illinois should increase taxes on tobacco products and use
the money to pay for a public information campaign to
discourage tobacco use, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, DIll., said
Monday.

A similar program is in effect in California.

"Three thousand kids start smoking every day in America
for the first time," Durbin told reporters at The Feed
Store restaurant in Springfield, where he discussed issues
and took questions. "We have to take this very, very
seriously."

Illinois has a state tax of 44 cents per pack of
cigarettes. Other tobacco products, including chewing
tobacco, cigars, snuff and pipe tobacco, are taxed at 18
percent of their wholesale price.

Durbin, whose father died of lung cancer, is
cosponsoring a bill that would increase the federal
cigarette tax by 43 cents to pay for health insurance for
uninsured children.

Durbin also said he has no problem with medical use of
marijuana a move opposed by the administration of
President Clinton.

"I would not automatically rule out a doctor's
prescription of marijuana or the chemical in marijuana to
alleviate pain or to treat conditions like glaucoma,"
Durbin said.

The firstterm senator also said he is working with
Democratic leaders of the Senate to fashion a bill to
restrict lateterm abortions. Such legislation should ban
all lateterm abortions those past about 22 weeks of
pregnancy except in cases where the life of the mother
is at stake or the mother faces a "a serious health
threat," be it physical or

He also said there's some discussion of considering the
health of the baby as a factor.

"My life experience in this consists of meeting six
women who . . . found late in their pregnancies through
sonograms that the baby they were carrying suffered from
tragic deformities," Durbin said. "They also learned that
the babies would not survive and that continuing the
pregnancy was a danger to their health. In those
instances, their doctors recommended terminating the
pregnancies, and they met with their families and priests
and friends and concluded that it was the right thing to
do."

Last year, when Durbin was in the U.S. House, he voted
against a ban on socalled partialbirth abortions.

Durbin also reiterated his opposition to allowing
Illinois residents to carry concealed firearms an idea
he said is opposed by "virtually every police
organization." Having guncarrying people in "shopping
malls and in restaurants and on buses isn't going to make a
safer state," he said.

Durbin hinted he will endorse U.S. Sen. Carol
MoseleyBraun, DIll., for reelection, despite some
publicized problems she's had.

"She is actively working for this state, and she is
doing a great job," Durbin said of his Senate colleague.

He's not sure if he will endorse anyone in the 1998
Democratic primary race for governor, but said announced
candidate U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, DMarion, is setting the
pace and "firing up a lot of people."

"Those other candidates who are thinking about getting
in had better start scrambling," Durbin said.