Tobacco Companies Propose Settlement

Re “2 Tobacco Giants Weigh $300-Billion Settlement,” April 17 (with tongue in cheek):

We must make an example of these tobacco dealers who target their drug to young people, and were caught lying under oath about the harmfulness of their drug. These guys should not be allowed to plea-bargain for lesser punishment; they should face the consequences of their actions. Their drug kills thousands every year; give ‘em the death penalty!

But then, the U.S. wouldn’t be flooded with tobacco if there wasn’t such high demand. Zero tolerance for these users; they must show some personal responsibility and “just say no” to nicotine!

But what about those other guys who sell crack? Don’t blame them, they have proof it’s not addictive. Their customers knew how dangerous crack was when they bought the stuff. Using crack was their choice!

Of course I jest; our approach to drug use would never be so schizophrenic and absurd.

MICHAEL ESTES

National City

* Seems the tobacco companies are offering a limited amount of money for an unlimited amount of damage to an unlimited number of people for an unlimited period of time. What kind of deal is that?

SANDY ROBBINS

Marina del Rey

* Where will the tobacco industry get the $300 billion to settle claims? Easy. They’ll sell more cigarettes.

AUGUSTO FERRERA

Long Beach

* Henry Waxman does not approve of freedom. So much is evident from his frightening piece (Commentary, April 21). Waxman compares tobacco companies with drug dealers and polluters--seeking to blur the distinction between selling a legal product and committing a crime. Selling cigarettes is (so far) not a crime. Nor is advertising them (yet).

Waxman has much to say about the “deaths tobacco causes,” as if the tobacco companies were kidnapping people and injecting nicotine against their will. Smoking is a voluntary activity. So is the decision to begin smoking.

Waxman thinks he knows best how other people should live their lives. Perhaps so; perhaps not. What is especially dismaying, though, is that he intends to mandate his prescription.

Ideologues like Waxman are far more dangerous to America than all the cigarettes ever made. For he is a poison eating at the very soul of our society, eroding the Constitution and the habit of self-reliance upon which it depends.

P.S. I am a lifelong nonsmoker.

JAMES F. GLASS

Chatsworth