Letter: No smoke without taxes - the case against prohibition

Sir: Dr Davison (letters, 22 May) suggests that tobacco should ultimately be banned altogether. He needs only to recall the extreme effects of alcohol prohibition in the US, to say nothing of the unimaginably enormous global loss of tax revenues.

There are 1.1 billion smokers around the world, which represents one third of the earth's adult population. The notion that all those people shall be required to forgo what they regard as a simple and freely chosen pleasure is simply ludicrous.

CLIVE TURNER

Tobacco Manufacturers' Association

London SW1