LETTERS: KICKING THE HABIT

To the editor:

If you can kick the habit of smoking, you are a winner. Better yet, you are even wiser if you never started. Nicotine has a stronger hold on people than the Food and Drug Administration or physicians in warning the people. It is easy to say stop smoking but so hard to quit. I can speak from experience, because I was a victim to cigarettes. Knowing that it became offensive to my family, I made up my mind to kick the habit.

Too many of our popular stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper, who smoked several packs a day, have died as a result of smoking.

President Clinton's attempt to ban the sale of cigarettes to the younger generation and to put an overall ceiling on further sales probably won't be accomplished. Tobacco growers have a strong hold on their industry. It is their way of earning money. Likewise, cigarette manufacturers are determined to hold on to sales.

For those who have the willpower and determination to kick the habit of smoking, you are a winner. The sale of cigarettes will diminish, and lives will be saved. Why endanger your own life?

PAULA E. KEMPE

Cape Girardeau