Letters and Comments for May 22, 2009

Need boost in cigarette tax

To the Editor:

Did you know that it only takes four cigarettes to become addicted to tobacco? When one considers that smoking and other tobacco use costs Oregonians more than $2 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity, it’s surprising that some legislators continue to oppose policies that will reduce tobacco consumption.

If cigarettes were priced to cover all the costs they impose on Oregonians, they would cost over $11 per pack. But they’re not, leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill.

The solution? There’s legislation in Salem that would raise the cigarette tax by 60 cents, bringing the average pack of cigarettes to $5.43, still well below the actual cost of cigarettes, but putting a powerful dent in the problem.

Increasing the price of a pack of cigarettes is proven to decrease tobacco consumption, especially by kids. Fewer smokers mean less tobacco-related costs to Oregon taxpayers and improved worker health and productivity. What’s more, the benefits of a cigarette tax are maximized when the tax is spent on cessation and prevention programs like Oregon’s Tobacco Prevention Education Program, which provides tools to help people quit.

As a member of The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) and a caregiver, I support increasing Oregon’s cigarette tax policy for the state because it encourages people to drop the addiction and saves taxpayers money. It’s time for the Legislature to embrace a policy that protects our health, our kids and our pocketbooks. It’s time to vote yes on H.B. 2122.

Debbie Cornford

Mission delivery chair, Union and Wallowa Counties Relay For Life

About freedom, survival

To the Editor:

Contrary to some recent contributor’s belief, overpopulation is not what causes hunger, wars and poverty.

Selfishness and greed are what cause these horrible conditions. The eugenicists who run the controlled media and the military/industrial complex want you to think you live in a depleted world that is on the edge of collapse and to lose hope in your fellow man and God.

The Lucifarian earth worshippers use scientific mind control techniques and their puppet politicians like Gordon Brown of the U.K., Al Gore, the George Bushes and Barack Obama to convince you that we humans are evil and the bane of the universe.

Their billionaire friends like media mogul Ted Turner and computer whiz Bill Gates do their best to make you believe that you are the cause of “global warming,” I mean “climate change” (funny how quickly that phrase changed) when in the historical record of human memory there have been cycles of warming and cooling that both the earth and humanity have survived.

The anti-American United Nations plays right along. I believe it wants the human population to be reduced 50-80 percent to “save the planet.’’

Genetically Modified Organisms, tainted vaccines for engineered flus and other diseases, trumped up wars and rationed health care are just a few of the New World Order’s soft and hard kill weapons that are being used to control the earth’s human population.

Wake up and smell the organic coffee, people. It is not about Right or Left issues, it is about our freedom and survival.

Dan Fiorito

Union