Bruce's bad habit
From Dr P. G. Urben Sir: 'Cigarettes are far more dangerous than all the other drugs put together.' Whatever Bruce Anderson (Politics, 7 October) was on when he wrote that is itself dangerous.
Several times a year, a teenager dies of a single social dose of Ecstasy, but never of a single cigarette. The same is true of solvent- sniffing. No cigarette ever persuaded its user that he could fly if he jumped from a high place — unlike LSD. They do not even grossly affect the reflexes and vision of drivers.
Historically, tobacco was the pipe of peace but not the incentive of assassination. Cigarettes are acutely harmless, but chroni- tally hazardous. Smoke 40 a day for 40 years and the smoking, but not the nicotine, may kill you. Some other drugs are smoked, but we simply don't have the statistical data from which to determine chronic effects. Many have yet to build up a 40-year habit.
Mr Anderson knows this perfectly well but cannot draw simple conclusions thence since his habit — politics — has destroyed his brain. The pc attack on tobacco is decayed Marxist anti-capitalism, a doctrine which should not infect The Spectator.
P.G. Urben
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
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