608 



unintentionally encourage teenagers to experiment with heroin and 



cocaine: 



"The problem is that putting tobacco, a legal 

 product, in the same category with heroin and 

 cocaine trivialises the illicit drug problem. 

 Thus, statements that eguate [tobacco use] with 

 heroin use and cocaine use could promote hard drug 

 experimentation with all its risks. Teenagers see 

 the normality of friends and relatives who [use 

 tobacco] and think that, if heroin and cocaine use 

 are only like [tobacco], then there is no harm in 

 trying these drugs. Nothing could be further from 

 the truth. Heroin use in our society leads to 

 gross physical, social and moral deterioration in 

 the frequent user. Misleading comparisons of 

 [tobacco] with other substances may 

 unintentionally encourage hard drug use and its 

 horrifying evils." 



The concept of "addiction" cannot and should not be applied 

 to a consumer product such as smokeless tobacco which has been 

 widely used and accepted worldwide for hundreds of years. 



