Mike Ward has missed a golden opportunity! By transferring his cigarette sales to Caroline’s Closet for the two weeks he will not be selling them at IGA, he just moves the sales to another “Howsers” venue and continues to enable teenage smokers. There might have been someone using this opportunity (to not be able to buy cigarettes at Howsers) as a message that it was time to quit smoking. Too bad. The revenues Howsers receives through cigarette sales are more than offset by the taxes paid to, in turn, pay for the high costs of medical care for smoking-related illnesses. A doctor once suggested that birth control pills should be sold over the counter and cigarettes by prescription only. Good advice.

Joan M. Snyder, retired public health nurse

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