New Curbs on Cigarette Smoking

You present a cogent editorial on the dangers of smoking. It calls for action now! It points to the deaths and illnesses and economic losses caused by smoking . . . and then it asks what are the Bush Administration’s plans to do something about it.

The front page and the Business section run stories about how the tobacco companies aim their advertising at young, at minorities and at women trying to lure them to this insidious drug.

But your same newspaper runs full-page ads for cigarettes and tobacco products. Apparently the same people who write your editorials don’t control your advertising. Apparently promoting addictive drugs that kill and main outweighs the loss of advertising income. Don’t ask what the Bush Administration will do about smoking; what will The Times do about it.

BOB FIRESTONE, M.D.

Nipomo