I've never smoked, but I have worked around smokers all my life. No cancer, no heart disease, no strange growths on my forehead from second-hand smoke. But I have seen people overdosed on drugs, mugged and starting fights due to alcohol in parks.

I am mystified as to where this effort to demonize smokers comes from. You can smoke a cigarette then drive a car with no adverse effects. But you can't drink a beer without impairment. How come we aren't hounding drinkers with the same diligence we hound smokers? Drugs are against the law; smoking is not. Is that a difficult concept to grasp?

If Mayor Rocky Anderson wants to do something good, he could clear the druggies out of the parks and/or enforce drunk-driving laws. Persecute them, but leave the poor, innocent smokers alone. Where is Rocky's judgment, or is this just the easy target for more publicity?

Roger L. Perkins

Murray