Why isn’t there a tobacco ban?

By Tom Keller, Henderson

Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The New York Times editorial included in the Nov. 27 edition of the Las Vegas Sun (“Dont kill progress in battling big killer: tobacco”) highlighted the success of high taxes and government education programs in reducing adult smokers to “only” about 15 percent of the population. This is ludicrous. As the column says, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the U. S. Tobacco is a terrible, well-known poison. We ban lead in paint, reduce toxins in car exhaust to almost undetectable levels, eliminate dyes with debatable toxicity from foods, ban plastic food containers, etc., but all we do is encourage smokers to quit?

It’s time for our politicians to quit sucking up to the tobacco industry and outlaw tobacco.