CIGARETTE ADS CAN BE BANNED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992                   TAG: 9201080315
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
CIGARETTE ADS CAN BE BANNED
A LETTER (Dec. 28) by D. Grey Thompson (about my proposal to ban cigarette ads on city buses) asks if I have ever heard of anyone getting killed over a cigarette.
Yes, I have. Last year, 430,000 people died from cigarette-related heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema and similar nasty things.
Mr. Thompson goes on to say that he finds it "unconstitutional that cigarettes can't be advertised on television." He states that "Alcohol is. Cigarettes are legal."
He has answered his own question. Since the Constitution permits government to make some things illegal, such as moonshine, marijuana, cocaine, etc., then it can certainly make the advertising of some things illegal, which is a much lesser restriction than totally outlawing the substance.
Mr. Thompson suggests that if I want "to write about the horrors of something, then how about alcohol?" I suggest that the 430,000 deaths last year alone from cigarettes is horrible enough, but alcohol is a good issue for Mr. Thompson to tackle. And I will support him on it, too.
BILL TANGER
ROANOKE

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB