The battle to rid the world of tobacco use: some see it as a noble purpose, some see it as meddling in lifestyle behaviors. One thing for certain--the war on tobacco has created some very dangerous unintended consequences. Dangerous to our way of life and dangerous to those the anti-smokers claim they want to help.

As a non-smoker, I like being able to enjoy a fine meal without the smell of cigarette, cigar or pipe smoke wafting over my table, but there are already plenty of places available for me where that will not and can not happen, places that have voluntarily gone smokefree. I patronize those places, thereby "voting" with my wallet.

On the other hand, it's obvious to anyone with the slightest amount of common sense that the war on smokers will be no more successful than the war on drugs or Prohibition and, instead of solving problems, will simply add to them.

Several billions of dollars have been spent to create an atmosphere where smoking is unacceptable, particularly in the eyes of our youth, and all that has been accomplished is to make it seem dangerous and therefore glamorous. Youth smoking rates, which were declining until the early 1990s, have begun to rise again; adult smoking has been cut in half, and the remaining 50+ million smokers are unwilling to quit, even though 77% of them say they could if they wanted to. Even worse, those kids you've been telling that tobacco is as bad as heroin have turned to--you guessed it, heroin. And other illicit drugs. The latest survey on high school drug use shows more than 40% of high school seniors use hard drugs and 75% use alcohol. You have reached the point of diminishing returns and it's time to back off.

There is no reason to legislate that all restaurants/bars, etc., be smokefree except to punish smokers. And that ends up punishing business owners as well, regardless of the false claims of increased business.

You have achieved your originally stated goal: no non-smoker ever needs to be forced to breathe secondhand smoke. That's enough. Anything else is a travesty of justice.

Sincerely,