Tobacco sales should be criminal

By Tom Keller, Henderson

Friday, Feb. 17, 2017 | 2 a.m.

David Bahr’s column “It’s time to light up a new federal tobacco policy” (Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 11) highlighted the battle between the manufacturers of e-cigarettes and the tobacco industry to try to rig the regulations to favor one industry over the other. Why is there even a contest?

If tobacco causes 500,000 deaths a year and adds $300 billion a year to health care costs, it is a deadly poison that should have been outlawed years ago. Tobacco kills more people than highway accidents, military casualties and pollution put together. For Congress to allow tobacco sales to continue should be considered a crime.