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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993                   TAG: 9301180360
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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FREEDOM OF CHOICE IS BEING SNUFFED OUT

ACCORDING to the philosophy expressed in your Jan. 8 editorial, "Raise taxes on health hazards," shouldn't we also tax people on the fat in the meat they eat? And the number of minutes they spend tanning? We know these factors are health risks, too.

It looks like all of you who despise smokers may soon be happy. Smoking will become the Prohibition of the 1990s. But some of us will mourn individual freedom of choice. We will mourn the fact that the anti-smoking lobbies were able to abolish the right to choose for the smoking minority of adult citizens in this once free country. Self-righteousness has left no room for tolerance. LARA ADDISON POUNDING MILL

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