Pubdate: Tues, 1 June 1999 Source: Daily Telegraph (UK) Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999 Contact: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Author: Pam Guiver IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO SMOKE SIR Has any research been carried out to establish whether there is a correlation between the success of the anti-smoking campaign and the huge increase in the use of hard drugs, bearing in mind that while the price of cigarettes has soared, the cost of drugs such as heroin and ecstasy is said to be relatively cheap? Cigarettes have been branded as causing lung cancer but, again, heavy smokers do not invariably fall victim to this disease (and may anyway be predisposed to it), while one may die of lung cancer even though not a single cigarette has ever touched one's lips. Yet one ecstasy tablet can kill. Much of the dramatic rise in violent crime is blamed on drug addiction. Few 60-a-day smokers have ever been blamed per se for mugging old ladies or for shooting tobacconists in the course of a theft. As Dr Robert Leeming reminded us in his excellent letter (May 25) on the Prime Minister's target to cut cancer deaths by 20 per cent, we must all die of something. But somehow this seems not to be taken into account. Why not? PAM GUIVER Brentwood, Essex - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck