THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609120022
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 45 lines
Maybe they just don't want to mess up that clean mountain-valley air. Or maybe they prefer pack mules to camels.
For whatever reason, the portion of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge and north of Roanoke showed more support in a recent poll than any other part of the state for regulating tobacco as a drug.
A whopping three-fourths of residents in the region approved of President Clinton's cracking down on the tobacco industry. Elsewhere, according to the survey by The Richmond Times-Dispatch, support for regulation ranged from a high of 64 percent in the tobacco-growing reaches of the Southside to a low of 49 percent in the far Southwest.
Fifty-six percent of those surveyed in Hampton Roads favored regulation, while only 31 percent opposed it. In fact, support for regulation outweighed opposition in every quarter of the state.
``Maybe they didn't understand the question,'' quipped Tom Morris, a political analyst and president of Emory & Henry college when asked about the mountain-valley numbers. Certainly, he added, the survey shows that the issue is more complicated that it used to be.
Even in Virginia, where tobacco was once king and the legislative halls are trimmed with replicas of the leaf, concern for good health has come to outweigh economic considerations.
Vestiges of the old order remain, the survey indicated. In the Southside, a fourth of the respondents said they believe the tobacco industry is telling the truth about the effects of nicotine. Statewide, only about 9 percent believed that.
And fewer smokers have tried to kick the habit in that area than in any other region of the state.
Some of the Clinton administration's proposals for curbing tobacco use are questionable. One doubts, for instance, that switching the Joe Camel ads in Rolling Stone Magazine from color to black and white will make an iota of difference when it comes to a teenager's lighting up.
But other ideas - requiring a photo ID with proof of age with every cigarette sale - could be more meaningful.
That Virginians from the sea to the mountains and beyond are willing to try regulation is as strong a signal as we can imagine that we are living in a New Dominion. by CNB