Addictive cigarettes can kill

I recently discovered that Reynolds [Tobacco Company] has 1.4 percent of the holdings in an income fund in which I have a small investment. I don’t want even my small investment to help produce and advertise cigarettes.

Scientific medical opinion is that disease caused by smoking is preventable, yet tobacco companies still advertise cigarettes to the young, healthy and gullible. Supporters of California Proposition #86, which would increase the cigarette tax, claim that the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association say that tobacco companies spend more than a billion dollars a year marketing cigarettes in California and that Californians pay about $8 billion a year to treat tobacco-related illnesses. Whether or not it’s really billions or millions, it’s still an awful shame.

Tobacco is a very addictive drug that harms (sickens and kills) the user and those nearby. If our fund makes dividends from cigarettes we are taking money from helpless addicts. Also, we are overloading our already overburdened healthcare system.

Eric P. Greenfield