Two hundred years of American history have demonstrated how flexible the Constitution is, but Philip Morris is stretching it way out of shape. There is nothing even remotely Constitutional about killing your fellow citizens. If euthnasia (killing people in accordance with their wishes) is a slippery judicial question, then the gradual murder of ignorant victims--be they smokers or non-smokers exposed to other people's smoke--hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of finding refuge in the Constitution.

In its recent crusade for civil liberties, the tobacco lobby has found fervent allies in the media industry, which grows fat on tobacco advertising revenues. The executive vice-president of the Magazine Publishers of America testified before a congressional committee that restricting cigarette advertising would lead to an upsurge in smoking because "the prominent health warnings now carried in all magazine tobacco advertising will not be seen by millions of readers." And he said this with a straight face!

SO HERE we are, in the midst of a mounting public relations battle between the tobacco industry and antismoking forces. On one side are pitted the forces of health, economic welfare and morality. On the other side are the forces of destruction, economic injustice and amorality. Where do we stand?

It seems a pretty clear-cut choice. To show support for the anti-smoking side, here are a few suggestions:

. Enforce existing anti-smoking regulations at Harvard. Smoking in common areas of dormitories, houses and other campus buildings is prohibited by Massachusetts law, Cambridge ordinance and Harvard regulation. Yet it happens all the time. Non-smokers should not be subjected to second-hand smoke drifting across a cafeteria or lingering in a hallway or entryway.

America's most respected drug pushers have flooded the media with advertisements urging smokers and nonsmokers to iron out their differences by talking to each other and respecting each others' "rights." This is ridiculous. Students should not have to apply moral suasion to their smoking peers to get them to comply with the law. Official reprimands and, if necessary, Ad Board discipline are appropriate for those who recklessly endanger the health of their peers.

. Establish non-smoking houses. No student should be forced to live above, next to, or even on the same hallway as a smoker. Surely residential diversity is a laudable goal when it brings together different races and cultures. But bringing together smokers and non-smokers at the expense of the non-smokers' health is hardly a logical extension of this thinking. First-year dormitories already have non-smoking entryways. Non-smoking upperclass students should have the same option.

. Boycott restaurants in the Square which have inadequate non-smoking facilities. This includes, for example, the invisible "border" in the middle of a dining room separating the smoking and non-smoking sections, which often places smoking tables within a few feet of non-smoking tables.

. Turn Harvard into a "smoke-free" environment, in which no smoking is permitted inside any Harvard-owned property.

Would these measures violate smokers' right? Only in the sense that it deprives them of their "right" to indulge in their favorite recreational drug whenever and whereever they want. On the other hand, these measures would protect the very real right of every American to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."