Pubdate: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Copyright: 2013 The Commercial Appeal Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95 Author: John H. Young Page: 9A TOBACCO KILLS, COSTS I had the pleasure of reading the anti-marijuana letter "Pitfalls of marijuana." The writer's points are well-taken. Now I would like to offer some hard facts about the consequences of smoking just plain old tobacco. These facts deserve knowing since they represent enormous amounts of our health care dollars. In fact, these consequences account for the single largest outlay of money for health care. Most of this information is readily accessible from the highly respected CDC. Are you ready for the 800-pound gorilla in the room? More than 45 million Americans smoke cigarettes. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable illness and death in the U.S. It is responsible for the great majority of the nation's lung cancers, not to mention being a very major cause of cancers of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, trachea, esophagus, stomach and urinary bladder. Smoking tobacco is also a very major factor in strokes and heart attacks and a whole host of other dreadful illnesses, such as emphysema, asthma (especially in children), erectile dysfunction, peripheral circulatory disease and low-birth weight and impaired babies. Smoking tobacco kills an average of 1,200 people every day in the U.S. It kills more Americans than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined. In addition, secondhand smoke kills another 3,000 Americans a year. There are plenty of other sad statistics I could relate, but it's all bad news and finally just gets saturating. Smoking has not one single redeeming feature. My question is how many people does the letter writer know of, or has even heard of, who died from smoking marijuana, or who even became ill from smoking it? John H. Young, M.D., Memphis - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom