Lighting Into Pringle’s Smoking Views
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* I was shocked to read in “Whole New Pack of Buddies for the Cigarette Industry” (Editorial, April 23) Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle was quoted as saying, “I am a free enterprise, no-tax smoker. Those [anti-smoking] people don’t have the right to tell everybody else how to live.” As a former smoker and health-care professional, I don’t think Pringle has the right to assume that his constituents want smoke-filled restaurants and workplaces back. As a father and one of the family value advocates, does Pringle advocate nicotine addiction or secondhand smoke exposure for his children?
I thought the people of California had spoken when we passed Proposition 99, but through the efforts of our governor and Legislature, we are having to constantly battle to keep those monies from being misappropriated.
I can understand that tobacco company money is tempting, but not at the risk of the health of our kids and the economic drain of tobacco-related illnesses. I hope that all our elected officials will think twice and weigh carefully the value of “free enterprise” versus “drug money,” for that is surely what tobacco company money is.
PEARL JEMISON SMITH
Garden Grove
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