Tobacco Lawsuits

Here we go again. The Florida weenies are on another, boring “deep pockets” campaign, complaining they didn’t know that cigarettes were bad for their health. Slowly, inexorably, Americans are slipping into a lethargic stupor of denial, in which they refuse to accept the consequences of their own bad choices.

I began smoking in the ‘40s, and even then we called them “horse chokers,” “coffin nails” and “camel killers.” We knew they were not good for us, but I can’t recall anyone ever having twisted my arm to force me to buy a single cigarette. I did it all on my own, and if they kill me, so be it. I never figured on getting out of this world alive to begin with. All these multibillion-dollar suits will do is to raise the price of tobacco, working one more hardship on the poor, and will certainly bring about smuggling on a monumental scale.

JOHN ANTHONY

San Diego