MEMO TO DOPE SMOKERS

Your Vice Stinks, Too

A person who dabbles in recreational drugs recently berated me at a
party for stepping outside to light up a cigarette -- a legal,
expensive and increasingly socially unacceptable vice in Canada.

After her lecture on the ills of tobacco use, its impact on
non-smokers and supposed burden on the social safety net, she toked
from a marijuana pipe.

Smoking has become so vilified that many thrill-seekers who indulge in
self-destructive vices, ranging from drug use to drinking alcohol to
promiscuity, condemn tobacco users, parroting the harsh rhetoric of
the anti-smoking lobby. Even worse, they downplay the health risks of
their own behaviours and break out amusing libertarian rhetoric to
quite accurately observe that the state has no business in prohibiting
their bad habits -- while castigating tobacco users at the same time.

Stranger still, a growing number of recreational drug users justify
their habits by trumpeting the supposed health benefits and organic
origins of cannabis.