Smoking Wars

WHEN Bob Dole suggested that tobacco is not addictive for everyone, journalists and anti-smoking activists reacted as if he had declared the earth was flat. Yet while Dole spoke a bit loosely, the gist of his comments is so plainly true that it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about. “To some people, smoking is addictive,” he said during a visit to Kentucky on June 13. “To others, they can take it or leave it. Most people don’t smoke at all.” His take was similar in an interview with ABC’s Peter Jennings that aired two weeks later: “My nonscientific view is that it’s a habit. Some people who have tried it can quit easily. Others don’t quit. So I guess it’s addictive to some and not to others.”

For observing that smoking is neither irresistible nor inescapable, Dole was pilloried as a tobacco-industry puppet. Never mind that what he said happens to be true, or that he also said cigarettes are harmful and people shouldn’t smoke —noting that he himself had a hard time quitting and that his brother, a heavy smoker, had died of emphysema. The crucial point was that the tobacco companies had given Dole and the Republican Party a lot of money, so he was clearly in league with the devil.

JS

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Jacob Sullum

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WHEN Bob Dole suggested that tobacco is not addictive for everyone, journalists and anti-smoking activists reacted as if he had declared the earth was flat. Yet while Dole spoke a bit loosely, the gist of his comments is so plainly true that it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about. “To some people, smoking is addictive,” he said during a visit to Kentucky on June 13. “To others, they can take it or leave it. Most people don’t smoke at all.” His take was similar in an interview with ABC’s Peter Jennings that aired two weeks later: “My nonscientific view is that it’s a habit. Some people who have tried it can quit easily. Others don’t quit. So I guess it’s addictive to some and not to others.”

For observing that smoking is neither irresistible nor inescapable, Dole was pilloried as a tobacco-industry puppet. Never mind that what he said happens to be true, or that he also said cigarettes are harmful and people shouldn’t smoke —noting that he himself had a hard time quitting and that his brother, a heavy smoker, had died of emphysema. The crucial point was that the tobacco companies had given Dole and the Republican Party a lot of money, so he was clearly in league with the devil.