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Advocate says war on cigarettes a bid to alienate low-income people 

Smokers cast outdoors to huddle like puffing pariahs would be forced to stand another 25 feet away from workplaces and public buildings under a proposed law.

State Rep. Ted Speliotis' bill will be taken up by the Joint Committee on Public Health at a State House hearing tomorrow morning.

Pro-tobacco advocate Stephen Helfer, 62, an assistant librarian at Harvard Law School and host of "The Smoking Section" on Cambridge Community Television, said yesterday it's government's "progressive effort to alienate and ostracize smokers" that's becoming the real bad habit.

"Smokers are seen somehow as second-class citizens, somehow dirty and unworthy of respect and consideration," said Helfer, who smokes 10 cigarettes a day in addition to a pipe. "Yes, it does hurt my feelings. It makes it difficult for me to socialize. The question is, how far do you go to handicap your fellow citizen?"

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