MIXED MESSAGES

In the not so real world we live in, the government allows and gives
out medical marijuana. This was the start. Next, let's give drug
addicts free needles and a safe place to shoot up their drug of
choice, and now let's hand out crack pipe kits so the drug abusers
will always have a clean pipe to smoke their crack with so they can
get high.

In the real world where I live, cigarettes are hidden behind blackened
cases so teens can't see them, clean ventilated smoking rooms are shut
down and smokers are banished to the far edges of town. Smokers pay
taxes, have jobs and are part of this thing we call society, and
because they smoke, they pay more taxes than a non-smoker. The
government gets their fair share of the cigarette tax.

The average smoker cannot go to the local pub order up a soft drink
and sit down with friends in a clean, well-ventilated smoking room and
discuss the day at work or life in general.

But a drug addict can go to a nice, clean room with clean needles,
clean pipes and shoot up heroin or smoke crack.

What do they discuss over the crack pipe? What is wrong with this
picture?

Second-hand smoke is a byproduct of smoking, and yes this is bad for
everyone. That is why smoking rooms are well-ventilated. It is a
person's choice to enter or not.

Car thefts, assaults, break-and-enters, robberies, homelessness and
death are the byproducts of crack and heroin, and in this we have no
choice.

Where are we going with all this? You can shoot drugs, smoke crack,
but not smoke a cigarette.

W. Travis