Stephen Helfer never goes anywhere without some kind of tobacco on his person.
He carries loose Norwegian shag tobacco in small bags or in a metal roll box that produces short, handmade cigarettes. On many an occasion, he has a round tin of smokeless, spitless packets of Snus to tuck in a lip or cheek. He also smokes a pipe daily, sometimes in his home, sometimes outside, depending on his moods. After over 60 years smoking, Helfer, 78, has refined his tastes.
Helfer runs a 30-minute, twice-a-month show on Cambridge Community Television, “The Smoking Section,” where he invites guests to discuss and sometimes debate him on the merits and negative effects of smoking. He’s also the leader and co-founder of the Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights, a group with six regular members, which has been railing against the “war on tobacco,” as he calls it, for 20 years…