European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes columns William f. Buckley or. Congratulate California on anti smoking stance concerning the new drive by the state of California against smokers a few observations 1 the going Assumption Over the years is that for every 4 cents you add to the Price of a package of cigarettes you will drive Down the number of Consumers by 1 percent. If this were True then if you priced a package at $4, you would have no buyers at All. That this is not True is quite simply obvious. Did nobody in that think tank consider inelastic demand How do they Coin these figures tobacco is the most addictive drug on the Market. Thirty five percent of those who expose themselves to it become addicts. This compares with 8 percent who on taking alcohol go with it All the Way to alcoholism and about 6 to 7 percent who on taking Coke become cok Heads. The new York times is currently running a series on where to buy bottles of wine for less than $10, which by the Way will get you Only 20 issues of the new York times and four of time Magazine. If there is a great big Market out there of people who will pay $10 for a bottle of wine which with spouse or company is Good for one meal it takes Little imagination to quantify the number of smokers who would be willing to pay half the Price of that bottle of wine in order to satisfy their habit for an entire Day a or if their addiction is heavy for half a Day. There Are scores of sex alcoholics the Correct term is a recovering alcoholics who report that it was easier to give up alcohol than to give up tobacco. That should not Surprise Given the higher addiction rate to smoking than to drinking. 2 California is using its new 25-cent surcharge on cigarettes it was already charging 10 cents to buy anti tobacco ads on television and radio and in the newspapers. We Are talking incidentally about a great Deal of Money $750 million per year. According to the Rule cited above an increase of 25 cents per pack will itself reduce by 6 percent the number of cigarettes sold in California. The tobacco Institute has predictably cried foul Over the entire scheme. The View of its spokesman is that California is using tobacco Money to harass tobacco Consumers. If i were the tobacco Institute i Frances Helms no to inking m0 so Dong to a thing meat no sugar no Salt no Sunshine no sex a to. Be a downstairs breath no the a re Dan would silence that Man because he is playing with fire. The figures Are not readily at hand so i cannot give you the Cost to the taxpayers of California of people who die from a tobacco related disease. But since about 400,000 do die every year because they smoked California with about 11 percent of the National population loses 44,000 people every ear. The Cost of caring for the death found smoker is approximately $100,000, which times 44,000 is $4 billion plus per year. And of course this does no to count the loss of Revenue to California from premature deaths let alone the loss of Revenue to survivors of the stricken. No the use of tobacco taxes to finance anti tobacco education is very Wise. Its a users tax in the Best Trade e Tion of the free Market. One up for California. 3 but the marketplace is most awfully responsive. When i was a Soldier in world War ii i regularly sent my siblings cigarettes which Cost me 10 cents per pack at the pm and Cost them 35 cents per pack at the drugstore. The tax on cigarettes in North Carolina is 2 cents. You Arentt supposed to ship cigarettes out of state but its about As Safe to break that Law As it is to go out and buy a joint of marijuana. The Price of postage of course figures but we must assume that californians Hurt by the new surcharge in the Price of cigarettes Are going to be receiving a lot of care packages from North Carolina. Perhaps the californian anti tobacco people will devote a part of their $750 million budget to showing pictures of jails peopled by californians caught smuggling in North Carolina cigarettes without paying the local tax. 4 the rate of tobacco consumption has decreased in the last 20 years from 43 percent to 28 percent and that is terribly Good news. It translates to 60,000 americans per year who will live rather than die because they gave up smoking. The anti smoking fever is to be encouraged when it is intelligent. It should not be encouraged when it is sadistic. It is this when a smoker gets into an air plane for a six hour flight and is told no smoking. One detects in the anti smoking crusade just a Little taste of pleasure taken from the pain of others and that i gently argue is in american. C Universal press Syndicate Marissa eve born out of love not calculation can you believe it self righteous people including some physicians Are condemning the birth of a baby in California. We be been seeing them on television hearing them on radio and Reading about them in newspapers As they pontificate about the ethics of the couple who chose to conceive a child to use As a possible Bone marrow donor for another child who is dying of leukaemia. They Are not protesting the birth but the reason behind it. They would have us believe that Abe and Mary Ayala of Walnut calif., Are some kind of calculating monsters who arc using a helpless baby in a last ditch attempt to save the life of their much loved older daughter. The key word Here is  these so called experts in ethics Are equating the ayalas efforts with the farming and Selling of organs with the deliberate abortion of fetuses for research with All kinds of nefarious Neo medical schemes that have nothing to do with the ayalas or their plight. Of course its easy to make the Calls on something in which we Are not involved. Its easy to discuss psychological and theological ramifications when we Are safely ensconced in our own Little worlds knowing that these choices will never be ours to make. Or we should Hope that these choices will never be ours to make. Perhaps i am simplifying the matter. Perhaps these experts know something that i done to. But i know no Loving parents no truly Good people who would not exhaust every possibility to save the life of a child. And it Isnit As though the ayalas simply said a wok lets have a  he had had a Vasectomy that had to be reversed a a procedure that had no guarantee of Success in the first place. And she was 43, an age at which most women fear pregnancy because of potential danger to themselves and to their babies. And even if the pregnancy occurred and successfully was carried to full term they had no guarantee that 18-year-old Anissa would live that Long or whether the baby would prove to be a compatible donor for the Bone marrow Anissa so desperately needs. But they wanted to try. Of course their decision was deliberate but so is that of every responsible couple who try to conceive a child. The ayalas reasons perhaps were further reaching More desperate in nature but no less Well considered. They had no guarantee As to the outcome of this pregnancy but then no one Ever does. They acted in Faith and in love. Marissa eve Ayala was bom april 3. Tests showed that her Bone marrow is compatible with that other sister. If the marrow transplant which doctors say could take place in about six months is successful the ayalas will have two healthy daughters a the Bany faces Little risk says the surgeon who will perform the operation. With the ayalas 19-year-old son Airon the family will be Complete. And alive. Will the ayalas have a a used this baby yes. Will they discard her after she has served their purpose. No. So what a the problem. Marissa eve named after the Mother of Many a a h will give her sister rebirth. She was bom so that an her might have a Chance at new life. On easter we should remember and be thank full Helms is a columnist for the Spartanburg . Herald journal. Distributed by the new York times news service the opinions expressed in the co1 a Jujj a no no on this Page represent those of the authors a the Way to be considered As representing the. Stars and stripes or the United states go get