Pubdate: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2014 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/ Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Dave Johnson Page: 18A STOP THE STARTER DRUG Re: "Heroin overdoses on rise - Crackdown on access to pills has fueled trend," Sunday news story. Pictures DO speak louder than words in your story. Pictured just under the title is an addict with her starter drug - the one we know as tobacco. Indeed, tobacco leads to abuse of other drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and heroin. One solution to decrease drug usage would be to ban the tobacco drug, which kills 14,000 addicts and another 1,800 innocent people (who were exposed to toxic tobacco smoke) around the world, every day. In the U.S., the tobacco pushers and their lethal drug cost our economy $200 billion every year. The solution is to eliminate this drug from society and prosecute the people who still push the killer weed. Dave Johnson, Arlington - --- MAP posted-by: Matt