In a letter published in September, Michael C. Boynton glamorized tobacco stores and said Dr. Dora Mills has demonized tobacco .

Tobacco smoke contains a multitude of highly toxic substances. On a toxicity scale of one to six, the coumarin (rat poison) additive is a “very toxic” No. 4, and nicotine is a “super toxic” No. 6. These toxic chemicals do so much damage to an addict’s nervous system that the resulting chemical impairment discomforts cause them to become more and more involved in anger flare-ups and spontaneous verbal and physical lashing out at spouses and children; anyone who might happen to be near them at the more uncomfortable end of their mood swings between “fixes.” I’m convinced it is more accurate to blame tobacco for demonizing addicts.

Boynton wrote that tobacco stores are opened because individuals “recognize a business opportunity.” Handing unknowledgeable, unsuspecting victims rat poison all day doesn’t sound like a legitimate, ethical business opportunity to me.

Smoking and Health Review (Jan. 1) says, “Nearly half of all cigarettes purchased in the U.S. are smoked by people who suffer from mental illness, and those people are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes. … Not only does the habit put them at greater risk for serious ailments such as heart disease and lung cancer, but it can interfere with the effectiveness of medications to treat their disorders.” Should we continue to allow toxic drug pushers to, indiscriminately or otherwise, keep handing these defective and deadly products to those people?

Those Americans, and others, who marketed tobacco products, guns and flying lessons to foreign terrorists, also recognized a business opportunity, but I’d say the demonic response wasn’t worth it.

Ray L. Perkins Jr.

Founder and president

Mid-Coast Maine Promotion

“For Clean Indoor Air”

Waldoboro