Dear Editor,

Shouldn’t humanity grieve that the Florida Gators quarterback Will Grier was suspended for one year for testing positive for an over-the-counter performance-enhancing substance, when the “leadership” of the University of Florida allows a passionate tobacco CEO to serve on their distinguished Board of Trustees?

Tobacco will painfully sack and slay over 480k Americans annually per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. My quick research outreach with our CDC surprised me when the phone representative answered my question, “How many annual PED (Performance Enhancing drugs) related deaths?” with, “What is PED?” Then he searched for deaths by PED or steroids, to give me an answer, “All I’m getting is a big goose egg.”

Goose egg vs. 480k? Science is an underdog to sports and law.

Mike Sawyer, MDiv, B.S.
Denver, CO

I worked 42 days as a Florida Tobacco Prevention Specialist (see NY Times letter https://www.google.com/search?as_q=ny+times+tobacco&as_epq=mike+sawyer&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights= )
http://trustees.ufl.edu/about-the-board/trustees/susan-cameron/
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/