There is a smoking story making the rounds here in New York. Seems the New York State Legislature has cut funding thirty-percent to its anti-smoking program. These cuts were over a three-year period. Many other programs and agencies also saw their funding reduced: the State has a large budget deficit. Among other consequences, the tighter anti-smoking budget forced a scaling back of the free nicotine-patch program. That’s not my “free”, incidentally. It arose from the fruitful imagination of one Russ Sciandra, who bills himself director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York, a mysterious not-for-profit. We must not...