In regard to your editorial recommending Congress raise the cigarette tax ("Where there's smoke…" July 9), just observe how motorists have limited their auto use when gas was almost $4 per gallon — none at all.
Or just look in Baltimore's alleys, streets and sidewalks to see how cigarettes are now smoked right down to the filter to save money, making the experience more toxic than ever.
Or see how more and more people smoke outdoors and in their homes because smoking is not allowed indoors in all places. So we go outside to face cigarette butts and smoke everywhere and go home to breathe in cigarette smoke from our neighbors. The homes and outdoors are becoming stinking, ugly, unhealthy places.
Congress needs to outlaw cigarette smoking. That is the only answer.
Nicholas J. Delambo, Baltimore
