Letters : An Easy Way to Reduce Cigarette Consumption

Reducing cigarette consumption--would not be difficult.

Outlaw tailor-made cigarettes. Please note that I do not recommend outlawing tobacco. Any company that wishes could continue to sell tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes. The lessons of Prohibition indicate that outlawing a popular substance leads to more trouble than it is worth.

The manufacture of tailor-made cigarettes to American standards is a high-tech industry. It cannot be done in small illicit labs like the processing of PCP, cocaine or heroin.

The availability of quality tobacco for hand-rolling would discourage the development of an illegal tailor-made market. Most people would not pay the premium prices demanded by an illicit market for a product of unknown quality. They could roll a high quality product for themselves. It would just be annoying.

Truly addicted persons would continue to smoke no matter how inconvenient. But most would give it up as too much bother before it became a deeply engrained habit.

Some may think it improper to remove a financially successful product from the market, but the Food and Drug Administration did not hesitate to ban the production of Quaaludes when the drug was seen as doing more social harm than good. I do not recommend trying to remove tobacco from the market. I only recommend a reduction in its convenience.

Lung cancer rates were relatively low before the introduction of the tailor-made cigarette.

The level of illness created by tailor-made cigarettes is great enough to exhaust the wealth of the average citizen. Whatever one might think of the individual rights of the smoker and the maker of cigarettes, the number of victims whose medical care must finally be supported by Medicare makes this a public health issue. The Medicare system is already too financially troubled to be drained by a marketing convenience like tailor-made cigarettes.

RICHARD SAND

Whittier