New Curbs on Cigarette Smoking

I am a nonsmoker. Nevertheless, I staunchly support the tobacco industry’s right to freedom of expression.

What is at issue in the confrontation between anti-smoking zealots and the tobacco industry is not the health of those who smoke, but rather whether the tobacco industry has the same protection under the First Amendment as do the rest of us. The answer is of course the tobacco industry does.

I may not like the effects that cigarettes have on the people who smoke them, however, I strongly defend the right of the tobacco industry to promote its products, regardless of whether I find them repugnant.

The recent furor that has been expressed over R.J. Reynolds’ targeting of blacks with the Uptown brand of cigarettes is also interesting. Why hasn’t a similar furor arisen over the targeting of white professionals by Philip Morris’ Marlboro brand?

What the anti-smoking lobby is attempting to accomplish is nothing short of a 1990s version of McCarthyism. The tobacco industry is guilty without trial, without recourse to the same protection that the rest of America enjoys.

Adolph Hitler gained power through the skillful manipulation of popular hysteria. Let us not allow ourselves to be badgered and railroaded in a similar fashion by the anti-smoking lobby.

Let us support freedom of expression, whether or not we agree with the point of view expressed.

IAN GREGOR

San Diego