Tobacco Suit

* I see the tobacco companies are being sued by their largest business partner: the U.S. government (Sept. 22-23). After collecting billions of dollars of excise and income taxes on cigarettes, the government wants even more. It would be interesting to see who has profited most from cigarettes in the last 35 years, since the surgeon general’s warning. Is it the tobacco companies or the state and federal governments?

I lost my mother to lung cancer this year, so I have no love for tobacco companies or their products. I have even less for those who try to achieve political gain through hypocrisy.

HAROLD PARKER

Pasadena

* I almost laughed out loud when I read the headline about the Justice Department suing the tobacco companies for health-related costs. Perhaps it would be a better start for the department to sue the federal government for the millions and millions of dollars in subsidies paid to tobacco growers that enabled these companies to stay in the business of getting people addicted to their products.

GLENN BAIRD

Woodland Hills